The FBI’s latest public release on Thomas Matthew Crooks contains something that deserves a straight answer.
Agents flagged several message threads with unidentified contacts as “pertinent” to their investigation of the Butler assassination attempt.
Yet the names on the other end remain hidden, leaving Americans to wonder who Crooks was talking to — and why the FBI considered those exchanges important.
Judicial Watch: New FBI Records Reveal Thomas Crooks’ Phone Messages, Drone Details READ: https://t.co/U0U0Hz4FFT pic.twitter.com/0z1CKEn0Wh
— Judicial Watch(@JudicialWatch) October 5, 2026
Judicial Watch announced that it obtained 249 pages of FBI records through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The group said the FBI has identified roughly 75,000 pages that may respond to its request, meaning the newly released batch is only a small piece of a much larger file.
The contact logs are among the most striking items in that batch.
One thread from August 2020 begins with an unknown person asking Crooks whether he had made parts with a 3D printer. The records do not identify the parts, explain their purpose or say that they were connected to the attack four years later.
A second thread from January 2023 shows Crooks receiving a message about a package identified only with the letters “HK.” Judicial Watch interpreted that abbreviation as Hong Kong, but the records themselves do not publicly establish what the package contained or who sent it.
A third exchange from June 2023 involved another unnamed contact asking Crooks what was happening in his area.
All three sets of messages were marked as pertinent in the FBI material. The label proves neither assistance nor advance knowledge, but it does show that investigators considered the exchanges worth preserving and flagging.
The newly released pages add another layer to what was already known about Crooks’ technical interests.
His father previously told investigators that Crooks had experimented with making a 3D-printed Glock as a teenager, according to the FBI records. Nothing in the public release, however, ties that old project to the parts mentioned in the 2020 message.
That distinction matters.
Questions are justified. Conclusions still require evidence.
The same records also provide more detail about Crooks’ drone activity before July 13, 2024.
WPXI independently reported on the release Sunday, confirming that the files include dozens of drone images and multiple flight logs. The local station also noted the unresolved package message and the 3D-printing exchange.
Investigators recovered 40 images and eight flight logs from Crooks’ drone account, according to the records. Seven flights were logged in the Allegheny-West region, while one was recorded in the Butler area on the day of the shooting.
Several images showed streets, homes, parking lots and other locations around Pittsburgh. The public pages do not explain the purpose of each flight.
WPXI’s review also described a DHL notice linked to a shipment originating in Hong Kong, while stressing that the released material does not identify the contents. That restraint is important: the file gives the public a destination label and a shipping notice, not evidence that the package had anything to do with the attack.
The records therefore sharpen two different questions. Investigators had both the phone data and the drone account almost immediately after the shooting, but the newly public pages still leave the purpose of several flights and the identities behind several conversations unresolved.
The FBI previously said agents gained access to Crooks’ phone soon after the attack and conducted hundreds of interviews while analyzing his devices, online activity and movements. The bureau said it searched his home and vehicle, examined physical evidence, reviewed financial records and worked through hundreds of tips as it tried to establish both motive and possible assistance.
The agency has maintained that investigators found no credible evidence of a co-conspirator, no second shooter and no foreign direction. It also said Crooks carried out detailed planning before the rally and searched for information about campaign events, explosives and prior assassinations.
Nothing in this 249-page production, standing alone, overturns those conclusions. The release does create a legitimate transparency question: if the FBI identified these exchanges as pertinent, what did agents determine about the people behind them, the 3D-printed parts and the delivery notice?
The distinction between a redacted contact and a proven accomplice is enormous. The government can protect innocent names while still explaining the investigative finding that cleared or implicated each line of inquiry.
Just the News reported that the identities were redacted from the public production and focused on the 3D-printer exchange. Its account says Crooks told the unidentified person that he had printed the requested parts except for fan blades, but the released context does not establish that the project involved the rifle used in Butler.
The outlet also highlighted the gulf between the 249 pages released and the much larger body of potentially responsive records. Judicial Watch says the Justice Department identified roughly 75,000 pages and is producing them at about 500 pages per month.
At that rate, the public could wait roughly 12 years for the full file. An investigation into an attack that killed Corey Comperatore, wounded two other rallygoers and came within inches of killing a presidential candidate cannot be explained to Americans on a decade-long drip schedule.
Privacy protections matter, especially if an unnamed person did nothing wrong. But the government can explain the nature of these contacts, what investigators ruled out and why the exchanges were flagged without recklessly exposing innocent people.
The public does not need rumors dressed up as answers.
It needs the FBI to release the evidence, explain its findings and close the gaps that redactions have left behind.
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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
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