FBI releases major update on Trump assassination attempt

The attempt on Donald Trump's life was made on July 13, 2024. Credit / Getty Images

The FBI has been forced to release further details on the Donald Trump assassination attempt that occurred last year.

Trump was shot at on July 13, 2024 while on stage at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. 20-year-old Thomas Crooks Crooks is said to have fired eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle from a nearby building’s roof, killing an audience member present at the rally, as well as a fireman.

Trump, then the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, was wounded in his upper right ear. He was quickly whisked off stage by his Secret Service team, while Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.

In the aftermath of the incident, the FBI claimed that not much was known about Crooks prior to the shooting. Information has surfaced in the past week, however, that has some speculating that might not have been the case.

Rep. Pat Fallon, of Texas, told The National News Desk that crucial details were not shared with the congressional task force he chaired, whose job it was to review the assassination attempt.

“We definitely got stonewalled,” Fallon claimed.

“When we finally got answers that we thought were fully forthright, now it seems like they weren’t.”

Under heavy pressure to address claims that they had withheld information, or worse, lied about the circumstances surrounding the assassination attempt, the FBI spoke with Fox News Digital.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told the outlet that he and FBI Director Kash Patel had made the attempt on Trump’s life their ‘day one priority’ when they took office.

Bongino also insisted that they found no motive for Crook’s attempt on Trump’s life following a lengthy investigation.

“We have reviewed this case over and over — looked into every nugget. We have spoken to the families, the president — there is no cover-up here,” he stressed.

“There is no motive for it, there is no reason for it.”

Meanwhile, a senior official, who wished to stay anonymous, explained the lengths the agency has been going through to uncover information on the shooting.

The individual in question said the status of the case sits at ‘pending, inactive’ but also labeled it one of the ‘largest mobilization of FBI resources in history’.

“Four hundred and eighty-five FBI employees have been involved in some way, shape or form in this investigation,” the official said.

“We’ve reviewed 2,000 tips that were submitted. We’ve served and executed more than 10 search warrants and 100 subpoenas. In that, we specifically analyzed 13 electronic devices that were associated with Crooks and his family members from his home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.”

Kash Patel claimed that many of the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination attempt surfaced due to comments made by his predecessor at the FBI, former director Christopher Wray.

“My predecessor went to Congress and said he didn’t know if it was a bullet that hit President Trump in the head. The whole world knew it was a bullet,” Patel said.

“For the number one law enforcement officer to say that — it causes a massive disbelief in the institution that Dan and I are now running.”

Disbelief may well be an appropriate word given the recent storm of speculation raging online. Political commentator Tucker Carlson last week stoked the fires of controversy by suggesting that government officials have covered up what they knew about Crooks.

Carlson wrote on social media platform X that he can “prove” the FBI misled the public based on Crooks’ online activity.

The aforementioned anonymous FBI official, though, reiterated that Crooks had acted alone and that the bureau had looked into whether or not he had been influenced by others, including foreign connections.

“There is no information, no evidence anywhere in this investigation, that shows there was any foreign individual or foreign government or foreign organization tied to Thomas Crooks,” the official said.

Bongino added: “We would have cracked the biggest investigation in human history — a foreign-directed plot.

“Why would we withhold that? But we can only follow the facts, and they are just not there.”

Speaking to The National News Desk, former FBI Special Agent in Charge Jody Weis recently stated his belief that the bureau should have detected Crooks’ threat before the July 13 shooting.

“For them to say we just didn’t see much there, that we couldn’t identify a motive – I can’t understand why,” Weis said.

What are your thoughts on the attempted assassination of Trump? Let us know in the comments.