Haunting new emails show the gunman who tried to murder Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania was also designing a bomb.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, killed two and shot the then-GOP presidential candidate in the ear at the event in Butler on July 13, 2024.
As part of the FBI investigation into Crooks – who top officials have said was not part of a foreign plot – has revealed more about the would-be assassin’s plans.
At the time, he was working on applications to a four-year engineering course at community college.
Meanwhile, using an encrypted email, he had ordered over two gallons of nitromethane from Hyperfuels.
A message shows Crooks, 12 days after his order asking why it had not shipped. ‘Hello, my name is Thomas. I placed an order on your website on January 19.
‘I have not received any updates of the order shipping out yet and I was wondering if you still have it and when I can expect it to come,’ he wrote on January 31 at 7.44am.
The feds were able to access his email because he sent it from an account tied to Community College of Allegheny County where he attended.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old Pennsylvanian who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump in July, was in the process of designing a bomb in the months leading up to the shooting
Crooks, 20, killed two and shot Trump in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024
Much was made of what Crooks, an apparent registered Republican who also donated to Joe Biden, thought politically.
The emails show a young man deeply critical of federal government, including an essay blaming NASA administrators for the 1986 Challenger disaster and praise of a George Orwell essay that warned ‘against adopting imperialistic policies.’
The one known mention of Trump comes in an essay praising nuclear energy and criticizing Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement during his first term.
He briefly mentioned Biden in reviewing a 2021 Washington Post op-ed that argued against the then-president’s proposal to make community college tuition free.
Wally Zimolong, who chased down the records on behalf of Trump aide Stephen Miller’s America First Legal, said ‘a year later we still don’t know enough’ about Crooks.
‘I think it raises a lot of important questions. Were they investigating anyone else? Are they still investigating?’ Zimolong asked.
However, of the hundreds of emails from his college account that have been viewed, very little else reveals much about the shooting but does give a look at the life Crooks was living.
One missive shows Crooks emailing his professor asking if he can only bring two or three adults to a presentation that asked him to bring five.
As part of the FBI investigation into Crooks – who top officials Kash Patel and Dan Bongino have said was not part of a foreign plot – has revealed views inside the mind of the would-be assassin
Online theories swirled that Crooks was part of a large foreign-influenced plot to take out the Republican before the 2024 presidential election, which he went on to win
‘I do not have access to any other adults’ aside from his parents and his sister, he writes.
Otherwise, Crooks is painted as an A-level student who professes his enjoyment for the fall season and stayed in contact with his professors.
‘It’s sad that he had so much promise and he chose to do this. It’s just very difficult to understand where it came from,’ Patricia Thompson, one of his professors, said.
Online theories swirled that Crooks was part of a large foreign-influenced plot to take out the Republican before the 2024 presidential election, which he went on to win.
Crooks was on top of a nearby building a few hundred feet from where Trump was speaking that day, crouched down with an AR-15 rifle.
He was able to fire eight rounds in Trump’s direction less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking.
Crooks was killed by counter snipers who took him out before he was able to reap more damage at the Trump rally.
A series of failures by the U.S. Secret Service ultimately allowed would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to successfully land a shot in Donald Trump’s right ear, a new report reveals.
Police personnel stand over the body of Thomas Matthews Crooks on a rooftop near the Trump rally
Agents found him in their sights and one pulled the trigger seconds after the 20-year-old shot dead Pennsylvania fire chief Corey Comperatore and hit Trump in the right ear from his vantage point 147 yards away.
‘They were looking at him while he was looking at them,’ a senior federal law enforcement official told CNN.
Video shows Crooks peering intently through the sights of his father’s AR-style weapon and firing towards the rally as onlookers scream from the base of the building.
Instantly a second volley of shots is heard and Crooks is pictured lying dead on the roof as those on the ground gasp in horror.
‘The Secret Service don’t f*** around man,’ one exclaims. ‘Holy s***.’
He had clambered up building’s air conditioning system and hoisted himself onto the roof where MAGA fans saw him ‘bear-crawling’ across the sloping surface with his rifle, and warned law enforcement of the danger.
‘I’m thinking to myself ‘Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage?,’ one witness told the BBC. ‘The next thing you know, five shots ring out.’
Crooks was a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center – where he provided food and care for post-hospital elderly and sick people.
Police snipers return fire after shots were fired while Trump was speaking at a campaign event
Crooks’s father Matthew opened the door to several members of the FBI who entered the unassuming brick home shortly before 10am
‘We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement as Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean,’ administrator Marcie Grimm said in a statement.
A colleague at the facility said Crooks never expressed political views at work and wasn’t a ‘radical’.
‘It’s hard seeing everything that’s going on online because he was a really, really good person that did a really bad thing, and I just wish I knew why,’ he added.
The would-be assassin was a registered Republican and 2022 high school graduate. Records show he donated on the day of the 2020 inauguration to a progressive group backing Biden.
He graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County in May with an associate degree in engineering science, according to school officials who said they were ‘shocked and saddened by the horrific turn of events’.
Crooks’ father Matthew was seen on Tuesday morning for the first time since the shooting as he opened the door of the family home to FBI agents.
A neighbor of Crooks’ sister Katie said her brother helped her move into her nearby apartment three years ago, describing her as a ‘hardworking’ woman who worked as a janitor at a local high school and as a server at a restaurant.
Both of Crooks’ parents are behavioral therapists and Crooks’ father said he was baffled by his son’s actions.
One troubling finding from the bipartisan Senate investigation was how technical issues downed Secret Service drones during the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The agent responsible for overseeing the Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) called a toll free 888 tech support hotline ‘to start troubleshooting with the company.’ There were no backups.
It took several hours to get the drones back up and running – and the agent responsible for the drone operations only had three months of experience with the equipment.
