(Washington, D.C.) – Judicial Watch announced that it received 249 pages of new Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who attempted to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The records include photos taken of the Pittsburgh area by Crooks using a drone, cell phone evidence that shows that Crooks received fundraising appeals for Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), a package delivery from Hong Kong, and an unusual chat thread between Crooks and an unidentified person.
Judicial Watch filed its July 2025 FOIA lawsuit after the FBI failed to respond to a July 2024 request for records concerning Crooks and the assassination attempt (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-02216)). The Justice Department has indicated that the total volume of records in the Crooks investigative file numbers approximately 75,000 pages. At their current release rate of approximately 500 pages per month, it will take 12 years for Judicial Watch to be provided with all the records.
An FBI electronic communication dated July 19, 2024, concerns a cell phone conversation in the Crooks investigation described as a “chat thread” between Crooks and a recipient whose name is redacted. The conversation occurred between May 21, 2023, and January 3, 2024.
The outgoing messages consist largely of one- and two-word messages or character strings, including:
Hello
Hello red
Hello red
Hdudhdbdbbd
7888ejdj
Yolo
Ddodjjf
890
Hdjd
Djdj
red
Yup red
Hello
Jhhhuuh
Hhdj
Jjjjjjjjjjjj
Hello red
Red red …
The incoming messages are completely redacted from this text chain.
A report titled “Samsung Messaging Review” is dated July 18, 2024, and details the FBI’s identification of other communications on a Crooks cell phone as “pertinent” to its investigation. FBI agents noted:
Conversation with unknown contact [redacted] 8 February 2023 to 10 February 2023;
Conversations with [redacted] 9 January 2023 to 16 January 2023;
Conversations with [redacted] 12 December 2022 to 26 December 2022.
The FBI also noted text messages consisting of campaign solicitations from then-U.S. Senate candidate Raphael Warnock and DHL shipment notifications from Hong Kong.
Much of the new production consists of FBI laboratory analysis of a drone examined as part of the Crooks investigation.
An FBI laboratory report dated July 19, 2024, details their technical exploitation of Thomas Crooks’ drone. They indicate they successfully extracted 40 images from the drone and eight flight logs. The images were taken between February 6, 2024, and February 27, 2024, in the Pittsburgh area. Seven of the eight flights occurred in the Allegheny-West, PA, area and an eighth flight on July 13, 2024, in the Butler, PA, area. The data pulled from the device indicates that it had been powered on 15 times.
“These latest records reveal more pieces of the puzzle surrounding Thomas Crooks,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The FBI should stop the slow drip of heavily redacted records and immediately provide the full investigative record – especially since the death last week of James Copenhaver, who was severely injured from being shot during the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
In September 2026, this lawsuit uncovered heavily redacted FBI records revealing that Crooks purchased “a chest rig and ceramic plates,” exhibited increasingly unusual behavior, including talking to himself, pacing at night, staying awake for extended periods and exhibiting impulsivity issues.
In June 2026, this lawsuit forced the release of heavily redacted records from the FBI that indicated that a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officer at the July 2024 presidential rally for Donald Trump in Butler, PA, recovered a “gray remote device” with an antenna from Crooks’ pocket after he was killed.
In May 2026, Judicial Watch received, in response to a Pennsylvania court order, an audio recording of a 911 call placed by the father of Crooks.
In April 2026, Judicial Watch’s federal FOIA lawsuit forced the release of the first FBI records about the Butler assassination attempt, revealing that law enforcement personnel broadcast radio warnings about an “unknown male acting suspiciously” prior to the shooting.
Also in April 2026, the lawsuit forced the release of records from the FBI that showed that Crooks was reportedly involved in an altercation with a group of people and making “hateful comments” directed at President Trump at the Butler, PA, rally.
In August 2024, Judicial Watch uncovered documents under a Pennsylvania open record request from the district attorney’s office in Butler County, PA, detailing the extensive preparation of local police for the rally at which former President Trump was shot. The preparation included sniper teams, counter assault teams and a quick response force.
In August 2024, in response to a Pennsylvania open records request, Judicial Watch obtained bodycam footage of the July 13 assassination events from the Butler Township Police Department.
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