The FBI spent two years telling America that Thomas Matthew Crooks acted alone and left no digital trail.
Now newly released Senate documents reveal a secret Snapchat account, an encrypted email service, and a digital footprint that Biden's FBI never fully explained.
And a retired FBI supervisory agent just confirmed there's a reason those files matter more than anyone in Wray's FBI ever admitted.
The Snapchat and Mailfence Accounts Buried in Crooks' FBI File
Crooks had a Snapchat account under the username "tom_crooks19."
He had a Mailfence account – an encrypted email service designed specifically to hide communications – and he logged into it multiple times between April 15 and July 8, 2024.
Five days after that final login, he was on a rooftop in Butler with a rifle.
He also had an Amazon account, meaning federal investigators could trace every purchase he made in the months leading up to the shooting.
The FBI closed its investigation in November 2025, upholding the finding first reached under then-Director Christopher Wray back in 2024: no motive, no co-conspirators, no identifiable ideology.
The documents that just surfaced tell a very different story.
Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason Pack went on record with Fox News Digital this week and explained that Snapchat's disappearing messages are not actually gone once federal investigators get involved.
Pack said his own experience serving search warrants has repeatedly turned up recoverable data long after users assumed it had vanished for good.
Pack also made a point worth sitting with.
He described someone who worked hard not to be seen accepting deliveries and relied on aliases to stay hidden – behavior that suggests Crooks handled his online life with the same care.
That is not the profile of a confused loner with no motive.
That is someone who knew exactly what he was doing and planned not to leave a trail.
What Kash Patel's FBI Still Hasn't Explained About Crooks' Encrypted Email
Trump put it plainly on Truth Social this week, saying that by the time he took office in January 2025, key information in the case had already gone missing, been altered, or simply vanished.
He called it a "Democrat Plot" – the same Democrats who ran the DOJ, ran the FBI under Wray, and had every incentive to close this case fast and quiet.
Crooks searched "How far was Oswald from Kennedy?" on the same day he registered for Trump's Butler rally.
He searched for the exact podium location at Butler Farm Show.
He loaded IEDs into his car trunk.
None of that explains why he was also running an encrypted email account that Biden's FBI apparently never made public until now.
Kash Patel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday and stated there is no evidence Crooks communicated with anyone beyond his parents.
Patel is running the FBI now – not Wray – and the documents surfacing under this new Senate review suggest the original investigation left significant stones unturned.
The Pattern in Thomas Crooks' Digital Trail Before the Trump Assassination Attempt
This is not the first time critical digital evidence emerged well after an investigation was officially wrapped.
It is, however, the first time a would-be presidential assassin's Snapchat account showed up in Senate documents two years after the FBI said the case was closed.
The Mailfence account is the detail that should be burning up every network tonight.
Regular people do not use encrypted email services.
People trying to hide something do.
Crooks logged into that account repeatedly in the final three months before he nearly killed the president of the United States, and Biden's FBI apparently had nothing to say about what was in it.
Two years later, that information belongs to the American people – especially the family of Corey Comperatore, the firefighter and father Crooks killed that day in Butler.
They deserve to know why.
The real question is why it took Senate investigators forcing document releases in September 2026 to find out that Crooks had a secret encrypted email account he used right up until five days before the shooting.
Wray's FBI had every resource on earth – 485 agents, 1,000 interviews, 100 subpoenas – and somehow the Mailfence account and the Snapchat trail ended up buried in documents that only surfaced this week.
That is not incompetence.
That is a choice someone made.
Sources:
- Adam Sabes, "Would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks had Snapchat, which may hold evidence 'treasure trove': former FBI agent," Fox News, September 16, 2026.
- Michael Ruiz, "Trump rally gunman acted alone, FBI says — but questions about motive persist," Fox News, November 18, 2025.
- Audrey Conklin, "Trump assassination attempt: FBI reveals first photos of Thomas Crooks' firearm, IEDs in car trunk," Fox News, August 28, 2024.
- Fox News Digital, "Exclusive: FBI concludes Trump shooter Thomas Crooks acted alone after unprecedented global investigation," Fox News, 2025.
