Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump in 2024, was portrayed as a withdrawn loner in newly released FBI interviews with his estranged father.
On July 13, 2024, Crooks allegedly fired eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle positioned on a nearby roof during a Trump campaign rally. Trump was struck in the right ear, while rallygoer Corey Comperatore was killed and two other people were wounded.
The interviews with Crooks’ father, Matthew, were provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley as part of the Iowa Republican’s investigation into the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Matthew told investigators that, despite his son’s unusual behavior, Crooks had “never showed any signs indicating something was wrong” in the period before the attack.
He described Thomas as exceptionally quiet, someone who rarely laughed and was often difficult to understand. Matthew also acknowledged that the two “never really had a father/son bond.”
Matthew said his son had been unusually silent from birth, recalling that Thomas “did not scream” as a baby and remained quiet afterward. He and his wife, Mary, believed the boy might have had ADHD.
On one occasion, Matthew said his son’s apparent lack of emotion became so frustrating that he “pushed” Thomas until the child cried. The incident followed an argument in which Thomas had emptied an entire container of fish food into his sister’s tank.
Matthew said Thomas became somewhat more animated during elementary school, but mainly because he was acting out “because he was bored,” according to documents obtained by The New York Post.
Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump in 2024, was described by his estranged father as a quiet loner in newly released FBI interview records.
Crooks allegedly fired eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle during a July 13, 2024, Trump rally, striking Trump in the right ear, killing audience member Corey Comperatore and injuring two others.
His father also recalled that Thomas once damaged a school desk and briefly associated with a group of children Matthew considered a bad influence.
Matthew said the situation deteriorated in high school. Thomas became increasingly withdrawn, began talking to himself and had difficulty speaking with his teachers, according to the interview.
Matthew told the FBI that Thomas “never showed interest in girls” and “repeatedly denied” claims that he was gay.
As college applications approached, Thomas placed “a lot of pressure on himself,” his father said. Despite not studying, he reportedly earned an impressive 1500 on the SAT.
Even so, Matthew said his son did not appear to have firmly established convictions or a clear long-term direction, instead expressing only broad ideas about his future.
‘At one point, Thomas wanted to join the military to work in nuclear submarines, but this was more of just an idea as Thomas thought it would be cool,’ one FBI agent notes from speaking to the father.
Matthew expressed regret that his work schedule kept him from being able to be around his son more often, saying that talking him through extracurricular activities could have helped the boy.
An interest in firearms appeared to spark something in the boy, Matthew claimed, though he said his son wanted nothing to do with hunting and ‘hated’ fishing.
The FBI interviews with Crooks’ father, Matthew (pictured), were given to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley as part of the Iowa Republican’s investigation into the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting
The father said that despite his son’s behavior, he ‘never showed any signs indicating something was wrong’ in the time leading up to the shooting
The pair’s conversations would usually involve guns, with Matthew calling it ‘odd’ that his son asked him if he needed a background check to buy his father’s Glock or if he could have his grandfather’s guns.
Matthew told FBI agents that his son began his new hobby by joining a gun club when the pandemic began, saying ‘he could not hit’ paper targets.
After about four to five years of practicing, he became a solid shooter, noting that he began trying to hit targets from further and further distances, explaining that ‘he wanted to see how far he could shoot with rudimentary sights.’
He began buying big quantities of ‘parts, tools and items to increase the capacity of his rifle’ off Amazon, using the name of former Senator and presidential candidate ‘Bob Dole’ as a pseudonym.
Thomas had become paranoid about his checking account being hacked after his father had experienced a hack, though Matthew explained that he could still be hacked under a fake name.
The son eventually taught his father how to use software to hide your identity to, as Thomas explained it, make them ‘less likely to be compromised by outside actors.’
Thomas started to build things using a 3D printer, even once creating a Glock 19 that he immediately got rid of after firing a single round, worried that the frame would explode.
A second person interviewed by investigators – whose name was redacted from the documents – spoke about Crooks’ political interests.
Matthew admits that his son was remarkably quiet, rarely laughed and was hard to understand and said they ‘never really had a father/son bond.’
The pair’s conversations would usually involve guns, with Matthew calling it ‘odd’ that his son asked him if he needed a background check to buy his father’s Glock or if he could have his grandfather’s guns. Pictured: Crooks’ weapons taken from the scene of the shooting
They called Thomas a ‘big history buff’ who had a ‘nonchalant’ interest in political discussions and ‘spoke often about Trump and [Joe] Biden back when Trump initially got elected,’ even repeatedly bringing up Marco Rubio.
Matthew said of his son: ‘Thomas called himself a Republican. Thomas did not like the welfare state and was against the ‘woke’ ideology but never really espoused the Republican ideology.’
He noted, however, that his son didn’t seem to gravitate to either party – crediting Thomas’ status as a registered Republican to his own – and that they would often make fun of politicians from both parties.
Thomas ‘did not believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged’ and ‘expressed shock’ over the events of January 6, 2021, Matthew claimed, but that overall he was more critical of Trump than his son.
He was surprised to learn his son had made a small donation to a Democrat group called Progressive Turnout Project in 2021.
Thomas’ interests were similar to many young men. He idolized the superhero Iron Man, loved movies like Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket and John Wick, while enjoying rap and country music, Matthew said.
Ultimately, he reiterated that no one in their family thought there were any red flags about Thomas prior to the shooting.
Much of the investigation into the mysterious shooter has baffled the media and onlookers.
Thomas’ interests were similar to many young men. He idolized the superhero Iron Man, loved movies like Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket and John Wick, while enjoying rap and country music, Matthew said
Investigators found 22 unfired rounds and extra magazines in Crooks’ vehicle, along with a ballistic vest.
An undetonated explosive device was also discovered in the car. The device had a receiver for remote detonation but was in the off position, preventing activation.
The would-be assassin was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
The President, in an extraordinary moment, raised his clenched fist as he was mobbed by bodyguards, shouting to his supporters: ‘Fight, fight, fight.’
Many do not believe the official version of the incident, especially since the FBI originally said Crooks had almost no digital footprint – and certainly did not disclose that Crooks exhibited violent, radical tendencies online.
The FBI then had to walk that back in November 2025 when Tucker Carlson released a documentary Who is Thomas Crooks? on November 14 with extensive and authenticated proof of Crooks’ radical online presence – and revealed the existence of the mysterious ‘Willy Tepes’ for the first time.
Carlson said in the video that a source was able to retrieve Crooks’ social media accounts from his Google Drive account after many, if not all, of them had been wiped off YouTube.
Right after Carlson’s video went up, FBI Director Kash Patel released a statement describing what he said was an extensive investigation into ‘nearly 500,000 digital files’ from ’13 seized digital devices’ as part of the Crooks case.
The FBI also created what it called the ‘FBI Rapid Response’ on X in response to Carlson’s video.
In one of its first posts, it wrote: ‘This FBI has never said Thomas Crooks had no online footprint ever.’
But a community note added to the post pointed out that during a Senate hearing shortly after the assassination attempt, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate did vaguely disclose a social media account believed to be associated with Crooks but went on to describe a ‘general absence of other information to date from social media.’
The FBI’s handling of the case has been confusing from the start.
On November 17, 2025, three days after Carlson’s video aired, Patel, then FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, and a senior FBI official sat down with Fox News to reiterate that Crooks acted alone – and issued an official FBI statement that appeared to be from their website but has only ever been available on the Fox News website.
The FBI admitted that a Willy Tepes had mentioned Crooks in four YouTube comments but said that Crooks himself had never directly communicated with Tepes.
That statement was disproven by the discovery of a YouTube video comment on August 5, 2020, showing Crooks responding to Tepes in a lengthy post that included this statement:
‘IMO the only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building (and) set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders and try to assassinate them.’
Since the shooting in Butler there have been at least three attempts on the President’s life
Helen and Corey Comperatore in a photo from Instagram. Corey was fatally shot by Thomas Crooks as Crooks attempted to assassinate Donald Trump
An online investigative organization called Citizens Commission released a video called ‘Who is Willy Tepes?’
It tracked Tepes’s full digital footprint, infiltrated the extremist Telegram channels he was active in, and recovered thousands of his messages — many of which explicitly encouraged political violence, including assassinations.
Citizens Commission used an online tracking tool, TGDB, to parse most of Tepes’ roughly 5,000 Telegram messages in 83 different channels on the app – the first one dating back to May 16, 2021.
‘What I don’t understand is how this guy is still able to keep posting violent stuff if the investigation into Crooks was thorough,’ said a spokesman for the group.
‘How was this Tepes character missed? Or if they knew about him why did they omit it in speaking about the investigation?
‘From everything we can tell, it appears Crooks talked about assassination attempts with a foreign terrorist in a YouTube comment section.’
Comperatore’s widow, Helen, made it clear that she does not believe the official account of Crooks’ story either.
‘If you think that kid just got out of bed and went and shot the President and shot my husband, you’re batshit crazy,’ she told Our News Outlet in May.
Comperatore said she believes that two people ‘high up’ at the federal level who were there during the Biden Administration and are still in their positions are responsible in some way for the assassination attempt.
‘I will find out what happened to him and I will continue focusing on this until the day I die.’
