The President’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, says the country still deserves straight answers about what drove Thomas Matthew Crooks to take aim at President Donald Trump — a year and a half after the Butler shooting and despite the FBI’s assurance that the 20-year-old left no meaningful digital footprint.
Her remarks came during a Pod Force One interview, where Leavitt acknowledged the public’s frustration in the government’s handling of the case, a distrust the South Shore Press detailed in its recent series on the assassination attempt.
“Those questions are definitely deserving of answers and I understand why the public wants those answers, and I believe the president does too,” she said, adding that she personally wants clarity as well.
The comments follow reports that Crooks allegedly operated numerous hidden online accounts promoting political assassinations, revolutionary violence, and hostility toward Trump. The findings sharply contrast with the FBI’s early narrative that Crooks was “a ghost” online, offering no insight into motive or ideology.
The July 13, 2024 attack in Butler wounded the President, killed a local firefighter, and critically injured two supporters — yet major questions remain unresolved 16 months later. Recent reports uncovered years of disturbing posts believed to be connected to Crooks across YouTube, Discord, and other platforms, including a 2020 message advocating “terrorism style attacks” against political leaders. None of this material appeared in the FBI’s public findings, nor in a congressional investigation that found no motive and no extremist activity.
Leavitt said President Trump himself “has inquired with the Secret Service and the FBI,” requesting an updated briefing to determine whether anything new had surfaced. She did not say whether the president is satisfied with the explanations provided.
This report is the latest installment in The South Shore Press series on the Butler shooting, which continues to explore why so many questions remain unanswered more than a year after the attempt on President Trump’s life.