Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito shared her concerns about what is still unknown about President Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks.
The FBI reported a single social media account that it attributed to Crooks. In the year since that announcement, very little information about the attempted assassin and his motive has been shared with the public. While Crooks did not leave a manifesto, more social media accounts were discovered on various platforms.
“We don’t know a lot else,” Zito said on Fox News’s The Will Cain Show on Tuesday. “And what the FBI presented was sort of this nonchalant, he’s a sort of neutral Switzerland person, right, who didn’t have any strong beliefs.”
“There are so many unanswered questions, and I think it’s important that we get to the bottom of this, because when you have no answers, then it’s always filled up with conspiracies and people start to wonder; what is our law enforcement doing and why don’t they have our back?” Zito added. “The hole that this creates with the lack of knowledge only makes people wonder the worst thing.”
Crooks asked his father to borrow a rifle to visit a shooting range on July 13, 2024, but instead went to a farm field in Butler County, where he shot at Trump, wounding him in the ear, and fatally shot rally attendee Corey Comperatore. Crooks previously used his father’s rifle at shooting ranges before his assassination attempt.
Crooks stashed his rifle behind an air conditioner at the field. When the rally began, Crooks climbed onto a roof within 400 feet of Trump as he addressed the crowd. A Secret Service agent shot and killed Crooks shortly after he fired.
ONE YEAR LATER, BUTLER STILL HAS FEW ANSWERS
Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her position shortly after the assassination attempt. Cheatle was replaced by Sean Curran, an agent who was with Trump that day in Butler.
Curran said he was “confident in the process” of the investigation into Crooks shortly after taking on the new role. By July, Trump assured he was “satisfied” with where the investigation stood.
