Nearly two years after the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, newly released FBI records are raising fresh questions about what authorities knew before the shooting.
The documents, obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, reveal that gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks exchanged emails with a Butler County Sheriff’s Office deputy before the July 13, 2024, attack.
According to the records, the communications involved a local community college program and do not indicate the deputy had any knowledge of Crooks’ plans. Much of the material remains redacted.
Still, the revelation adds another layer to a case that has already exposed significant security failures.
Witnesses Described Confusion Before the Shooting
The newly released records include interviews with first responders and law enforcement officers who were present at the rally.
Some described confusion over security responsibilities and recalled conversations about suspicious activity near the building Crooks later used as his firing position.
Those accounts mirror findings from congressional investigations and other official reviews that identified communication breakdowns and coordination failures among agencies responsible for protecting the event.
Security Questions Continue to Mount
Multiple investigations have concluded that significant security lapses occurred before the attack.
A congressional task force found serious shortcomings in information sharing among federal, state, and local agencies.
Meanwhile, a Government Accountability Office review concluded that senior Secret Service officials were aware of a classified threat involving Trump before the rally but failed to adequately communicate that information to personnel responsible for site security.
Those findings have fueled ongoing criticism of the agencies involved and continue to generate questions about whether the attack could have been prevented.
FBI Stands By Lone-Gunman Conclusion
Despite years of speculation, the FBI continues to maintain that Crooks acted alone.
Director Kash Patel and other officials say investigators found no evidence linking the gunman to foreign governments, domestic extremist organizations, or accomplices.
Authorities have also acknowledged that they never identified a definitive motive for the attack.
Crooks wounded Trump, killed one rally attendee, and seriously injured two others before being shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
The attack remains one of the most consequential security failures in modern American political history — and the release of new records suggests the public may still not have a complete picture of everything that happened in Butler that day.
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