Trump shooter remains ‘information black hole’ even as FBI cracks phone
Concerns are growing about the information void surrounding Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump Saturday.
FBI officials said they gained access to Crooks’ phone Tuesday after claiming they were unable to do so. Still, however, the bureau has not released any information to the public. Official and media reports have also not revealed any manifesto, digital footprint, social media history, or digital communications associated with Crooks.
So far, media outlets have tried painting Crooks as a Trump-supporting Republican. Reports say the young man had registered with the Republican Party and a neighbor reportedly told journalists that his family had Trump signs in their yard. Mainstream news sites have published soundbites from supposed neighbors and former classmates who have said Crooks was a quiet individual who did not want attention. Crooks’ donation to ActBlue, a Leftist political action committee, has received little media coverage.
‘It’s as if he never existed’
This information shortage has raised questions among political commentators and observers.
“This 20-year-old is also so politically radical as to attempt an assassination and yet not radical enough to have ever posted any political writings or commentary on any social media site ever in his life,” wrote Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh. “He also wrote no manifesto and left behind no indication about why he did it.”
Walsh added that aside from a few innocuous video clips of Crooks, one being a Blackrock video, “it’s as if he never existed.”
‘They’ve already declared the conclusion’
Mike Benz, a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cyber official and founder of the Foundation for Freedom Online, said the narrative on Crooks is an “information black hole.”
“No social media history, no cell phone information, no communications record, and a complete information black hole about the man who shot the President of the United States in broad daylight,” he wrote on X.
Benz also told One America News host Chanel Rion that the FBI’s visit to the Crooks family home would have given agents access to the house’s IP address, which in turn would have given them access to Crooks’ entire internet history.
Another question raised by Benz and others, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is how the FBI was able to declare that Crooks was acting alone even before they had accessed his cell phone data.
“It is plausible that it’s a lone gunman,” said the former DHS official. “But when the FBI takes over the investigation and we don’t have a single social media post within 48 hours, I see the burden of proof flipping the other way, in that they need to prove that to us. They made that declaration before they even had the cell phone data.”
“They’ve already pre-declared the lone gunman,” he added. “They’ve already declared the conclusion before they even launched the investigation.”
