The FBI finally admitted what motivated the Butler shooter.
But the agency's explanation raises more concerns than it answers.
And Kash Patel's explanation about Trump's would-be assassin left conservatives with one disturbing question.
FBI director reveals hatred of government motivated assassination attempt
FBI Director Kash Patel sat down with investigative journalist Catherine Herridge and revealed that Thomas Matthew Crooks harbored "a basically hateful relationship with the United States government" and "talked disparagingly about both political parties, to include President Trump."¹
That's the first time any FBI official admitted Crooks had an identifiable motive.
For 18 months, the Biden-era FBI claimed they couldn't determine why Crooks climbed onto a rooftop and fired eight shots at President Trump's Butler, Pennsylvania rally on July 13, 2024.
One bullet grazed Trump's ear, coming within a quarter inch of killing him.
Volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore died shielding his wife and daughters from Crooks' gunfire while two others were critically wounded.
Patel confirmed Trump is "satisfied" with the FBI's investigation and stated the case remains in "pending-slash-inactive status" so the bureau can investigate any new leads.
The 20-year-old Crooks acted alone with no foreign involvement, according to Patel's account.
But conservatives aren't buying the FBI's story.
Massive security failures remain unexplained and unpunished
The Secret Service knew about a credible threat against Trump's life ten days before the Butler rally but never shared that intelligence with agents on the ground.²
A Senate investigation found the Secret Service denied at least 10 requests from Trump's detail for enhanced security resources including counter-drone systems, counter assault teams, and counter snipers.³
Local law enforcement spotted Crooks with a rangefinder 25 minutes before the shooting and reported him to Secret Service.⁴
The information never reached the agents protecting Trump.
A security room agent assigned to Butler only two days before the rally learned about Crooks being on the roof with a weapon but failed to relay that information over the radio.
Twenty-two seconds before Crooks fired, a local officer radioed that there was an armed individual on the building.
Secret Service personnel protecting Trump never heard that warning.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee concluded these failures were "foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt."⁵
Despite what the committee called the "most significant operational failure" by the Secret Service in decades, not a single agent was fired.
Six agents received suspensions ranging from 10 to 42 days without pay and were reassigned to positions with less responsibility.
That's it.
The agent who failed to pass along critical information about Crooks being on the roof wasn't among those disciplined.
Tucker Carlson exposed what the FBI was hiding about Crooks
While Patel claims the FBI has been transparent, Tucker Carlson obtained Crooks' YouTube account showing 737 comments the shooter posted between 2019 and 2020.⁶
The comments revealed Crooks went from being a radical Trump supporter calling the President "the literal definition of Patriotism" to a Never-Trumper who mocked Trump supporters as "brainwashed" and "racist."
In 2019, Crooks wrote that Rep. Ilhan Omar "should honestly be killed" and called for "Trump-hating Democrats" to have "their heads chopped of and put on steaks."
By August 2020, he was calling for "terrorism-style attacks" against the government, writing "the only way to fight the gov is with terror-ism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building."⁷
The FBI knew about these accounts but never disclosed them to Congress or the American people.
Former FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testified in July 2024 about finding an account "believed to be associated" with Crooks but hedged on whether it was definitively his.
Carlson's source proved it was Crooks' account — and the FBI knew it all along.
The FBI also ordered Crooks' body cremated the same day the House Homeland Security Committee began its investigation.⁸
That decision eliminated any possibility of independent toxicology screening or additional forensic analysis.
FBI agents personally hosed down the rooftop crime scene instead of hiring third-party contractors as standard procedure requires.
Photos show agents washing away evidence the day after the shooting.
Even Trump's FBI is stonewalling Congress
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and co-authored the Senate's Butler investigation.
In July 2025, Johnson issued a subpoena to Patel's FBI demanding security camera footage, forensic reports, ballistics analysis, and Crooks' complete digital records.⁹
"One year following the assassination attempt of President Trump, the American people still do not have answers to all of their questions," Johnson stated.¹⁰
Johnson told Fox News he's been "stonewalled" by both the FBI and Department of Justice despite Trump being in office.
"I had expected the FBI to be more forthcoming with the public and provide my office with the records we have been seeking for months," Johnson explained.¹¹
A sitting U.S. Senator investigating an assassination attempt on a President had to subpoena Trump's own FBI director to get basic information.
That's not transparency.
Patel told Herridge the FBI can't monitor people on social media or YouTube because of First Amendment protections.
"This FBI, or any FBI, doesn't have the ability to go out and monitor, nor should it people who are on YouTube or on social media platforms," Patel explained.¹²
But Crooks was posting overt threats to assassinate politicians and blow up government buildings in his own name on public platforms.
The FBI was issuing contracts to tech surveillance firms to monitor social media for exactly these kinds of threats at the same time Crooks was posting them.
Somehow the FBI's sophisticated monitoring systems never flagged a teenager publicly calling for terrorism and political assassinations for months?
That explanation doesn't pass the smell test.
The FBI's story doesn't add up
Patel says Crooks hated the government and acted alone.
The Secret Service made catastrophic but unintentional security failures.
Tucker Carlson proved the FBI hid Crooks' extensive online footprint showing years of violent threats.
The FBI cremated the shooter's body and washed the crime scene clean before any independent investigation could begin.
Trump's own FBI director is stonewalling a Senate investigation led by a conservative Republican.
And Americans are supposed to accept that this was just a lone wolf with anti-government views who somehow slipped through every layer of security despite being reported to law enforcement 25 minutes before he pulled the trigger?
The Biden FBI's cover-up was obvious.
What's disturbing is that even under Trump's leadership, the FBI still won't come clean about what really happened in Butler — and conservatives are starting to ask why.
¹ Anthony Maki, "Kash Patel Talks In Depth About Attempted Trump Assassin And His Motives," Daily Caller, November 25, 2025.
² "Secret Service Failed to Discipline Agent at Heart of Security Failures in Butler, PA," The Gateway Pundit, July 14, 2025.
³ Emily Goodin, "Before Butler shooting, Secret Service denied multiple requests to bolster Trump's security detail," CBS News, July 13, 2025.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Zach Montague, "Secret Service failures before Trump rally shooting were 'preventable,' Senate panel finds," Associated Press, September 25, 2024.
⁶ "Tucker Exposes Trump Would-Be Assassin Thomas Crooks' Social Media History," Zero Hedge, November 14, 2025.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ "Chairman Johnson Subpoenas FBI for Records on the July 13, 2024 Trump Assassination Attempt," Senator Ron Johnson Press Release, July 11, 2025.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Anthony Maki, "Kash Patel Talks In Depth About Attempted Trump Assassin And His Motives," Daily Caller, November 25, 2025.
