More than two years after Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, newly disclosed FBI records are filling in more of the story of what happened before and after the shooting. They are also bringing renewed attention to several people, events and investigative leads that have never been fully explained publicly.
The records include an account of a person believed to be Crooks visiting a gun store with two unidentified men before the shooting. Other newly disclosed material reportedly describes Crooks speaking with another unidentified man at a shooting range the day before the attack. The files also reveal that an anonymous donor paid for Crooks’ cremation, provide more information about a ladder connected to Crooks and show that he received packages under the name “Bob Dole” while concealing some purchases from his family.
None of those details establishes that Crooks had an accomplice. The FBI has said its investigation found no credible evidence that Crooks conspired with anyone or that a foreign entity directed the attack. But the latest records contain details that have not been fully explained publicly, even after an investigation involving nearly 1,000 interviews, search warrants, subpoenas and hundreds of hours of video.
There is also still no publicly established motive. The FBI said its examination of Crooks’ online activity provided insight into his thinking but did not produce a definitive explanation for why the 20-year-old opened fire on Trump on July 13, 2024.
Who Were the Two Men at the Gun Store?
One of the more interesting details concerns a visit to Keystone Armory in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, before the assassination attempt. According to accounts of the newly released FBI material, a store employee reported that a person believed to be Crooks spent about an hour inside the store with two other men.
The men were reportedly seen looking at firearms, and the person believed to be Crooks purchased ammunition. The store provided surveillance recordings to investigators, according to the records. The material released publicly does not identify the two men or explain what investigators ultimately determined after reviewing the footage.
There could be a routine explanation. The men could have been acquaintances with no connection to what happened later in Butler, or investigators could have identified and cleared them. But if that happened, the portion of the investigative record now being discussed publicly does not provide that answer.
Another Unidentified Man the Day Before the Shooting
The gun store encounter is not the only newly disclosed reference to an unidentified person around Crooks. A review of the latest FBI records reports that Crooks spent roughly two hours at a shooting range on July 12, the day before the assassination attempt, and spoke with another man while he was there.
The records reportedly show that investigators checked vehicle license plates as they tried to identify people who had been at the range. What is missing from the publicly released material is a clear explanation of who the man was and what investigators learned from following that lead.
Again, the existence of an unidentified person in an investigative file is not evidence that the person was involved in the attack. The significance is that the FBI was specifically trying to determine whether Crooks had associates or anyone with advance knowledge of his plans. The bureau later said it had found no credible evidence of a co-conspirator.
What Happened to Crooks’ Ladder?
Another unusual detail involves a ladder Crooks purchased before the rally. During a July 24, 2024 congressional hearing, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said Crooks had purchased a ladder but that investigators “did not find the ladder at the scene.”
The newly disclosed material reportedly provides more context. A citizen found a ladder several days after the shooting in the Bethel Park area, along with a bag containing items connected to Crooks, including his shooting club identification. The items were turned over to authorities.
Wray’s statement was narrowly accurate because he said the ladder had not been found at the scene in Butler. The newly disclosed information, however, indicates investigators had recovered a ladder connected to Crooks elsewhere by the time Wray appeared before Congress. That additional context was not part of the answer lawmakers heard during that exchange.
The ladder was not how Crooks ultimately reached his firing position. The FBI’s reconstruction of Crooks’ movements found that he gained access to the AGR building complex before reaching the rooftop from which he fired.
Who Paid to Have Crooks Cremated?
The records contain another unusual detail about what happened after Crooks was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper. An anonymous donor paid for his cremation, according to an FBI interview summary contained in the newly disclosed records and reported by the New York Post.
The records indicate Crooks’ family was dealing with financial difficulties after the shooting. That offers a possible explanation for why someone else might have covered the expense, but the records reported so far do not identify the donor or explain that person’s relationship to the family.
There is no evidence in the newly disclosed material connecting the donor to the assassination attempt. Still, the unidentified payment is likely to attract scrutiny because Crooks had just attempted to assassinate a presidential candidate, killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore and seriously wounded David Dutch and James Copenhaver.
The handling of Crooks’ remains had already drawn congressional attention. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., who participated in the House investigation of the Butler attack, previously questioned why Crooks’ body was released to his family and cremated so soon after the shooting.
Why Was Crooks Using the Name “Bob Dole”?
The new records also reveal more about how Crooks concealed some of his purchases from his family. According to Reuters and Fox News Digital, Crooks received packages using the name “Bob Dole,” the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee.
His father told investigators that Crooks generally tried to retrieve the packages before he returned home from work. Some of Crooks’ purchases involved firearms equipment and tools that could be used to modify his rifle.
His father reportedly told investigators that Crooks began using another name after fraudulent charges had previously appeared on his checking account. Whatever the original reason for adopting the practice, the records indicate that Crooks was keeping at least some of his purchases out of his father’s view.
The Files Show a Growing Interest in Guns
The latest records also contain interviews with Crooks’ father about his son’s behavior before the shooting. Fox News reported from the records that Crooks’ father described him as socially isolated and said he had never identified anyone as a friend during middle school or high school, even though he interacted with classmates.
Other records describe a growing interest in firearms, shooting and gun parts. Crooks practiced shooting and experimented with 3D printing firearm components. His father also described unusual behavior while Crooks handled or cleaned firearms in the months before the attack.
Investigators had already established that Crooks conducted extensive research before July 13. The FBI disclosed in 2024 that his searches included “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,” along with searches involving improvised explosive devices, mass shootings, elected officials and the attempted assassination of Slovakia’s prime minister.
Those findings provide a much clearer picture of Crooks’ preparation. They still do not establish why he decided to shoot at Trump.
The Biggest Question Is Still the Motive
That remains the central unanswered question in the case. Investigators have learned an extraordinary amount about Crooks without producing a definitive public explanation for his motive.
The FBI examined his phones, email accounts, gaming accounts, messaging platforms, social media activity and internet searches. Agents interviewed family members and acquaintances, reviewed surveillance footage and reconstructed his movements before the shooting. In an August 2024 investigative update, the bureau said it had conducted nearly 1,000 interviews and analyzed hundreds of hours of video.
The FBI said it found no credible evidence that Crooks conspired with another person and no indication that a foreign entity directed the attack. Its analysis of his internet history also found searches involving multiple national political figures rather than evidence establishing a simple partisan motive.
Those findings matter because unexplained details are not evidence of a conspiracy. Two unidentified men appearing in an investigative file do not become accomplices because their identities are absent from the documents released publicly. The same applies to the unidentified man at the shooting range and the person who paid a funeral expense.
But the FBI’s conclusion that Crooks acted alone does not answer every question raised by its own records. If investigators identified and cleared the people encountered at the gun store and shooting range, the documents now in public view do not provide that resolution. The same is true of the anonymous cremation donor, while the fuller story of the ladder has emerged only as additional records became available.
More than two years after Butler, the basic sequence of the attack is well established. Crooks reached a rooftop overlooking the rally, fired eight shots toward Trump and was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper. What remains incomplete is the explanation for why he did it and, in several instances, what investigators ultimately learned after pursuing leads that appear in their own files.
The latest FBI records provide more information than the public had before. They also explain why questions about the Butler investigation have not gone away.