It’s been more than two years since Donald Trump was shot at his campaign rally in Butler, Pa., and the president still has not been given a satisfactory answer for why 20-year-old Thomas Crooks came within a fraction of an inch of assassinating the then-candidate.
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Crooks → shoot → candidate
It sounds like Trump is angry about it — and he has every right to be.
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he → sound → right
“Everybody knows the Crooked Joe Biden FBI didn’t do what they should have with respect to the Lunatic who shot me in Butler, PA,” he posted Tuesday morning.
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he → know → Butler
“By the time I got into Office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone.
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most → get → information
“New info was just found!
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info → find → ?
Why wasn’t it seen long ago?
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it → see → ?
“This was all a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed.
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that → get → Election
Dirty Cop Christopher Wray [the director of the FBI at the time] should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt, and certainly for the things he said.”
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he → pay → things
The White House confirmed the president’s “spray” was prompted by new information about Crooks (pictured at right on the day of the assassination attempt) extracted from the FBI by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and published exclusively in The Post that day.
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spray → confirm → Post
Who paid for cremation?
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Who → pay → cremation
Among the revelations is the startling news that an “anonymous donor” paid for the cremation of Crooks’ body after he was killed by a Secret Service sniper moments after he opened fire at the Trump rally on July 13, 2024, striking the then-candidate’s right ear, killing volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore, and injuring two other rally-goers.
Yet it could be significant, because the cremation destroyed crucial evidence.
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cremation → pay → evidence
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), who was part of House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, described the cremation as “obstruction to any following investigative effort” and said he was informed only a week later when he went to inspect the body.
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he → describe → body
We don’t know if the FBI questioned the donor to establish a motive for such largesse.
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FBI → know → largesse
Why hasn’t the FBI ever disclosed this fact, if not to the public then at least to Trump and the Comperatore family?
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FBI → disclose → Trump
When I asked the FBI if the donor had been identified and investigated, an agency flack replied:
“The documents in question are not new — they have been fully investigated by this FBI, briefed to the White House, and were turned over to the [Senate] Judiciary Committee by this FBI 6 months ago.”
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they → ask → FBI
If the information is “not new” and was already “briefed to the White House,” why did the president describe it as “new info [that] was just found!
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that → brief → info
Why wasn’t it seen long ago?”
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it → see → ?
And why have we just learned — from the president — that “most of the information [about Butler] was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone” by the time he took office.
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he → learn → office
Who interfered with it, and why?
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Who → interfere → it
What else has been withheld about the Crooks investigation, and why?
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What → withhold → investigation
The president also made the alarming claim that the assassination attempt was “all a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed.”
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that → make → Election
If the president is wrong, he deserves a full accounting of that day that allays his fears.
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that → deserve → fears
So does the Comperatore family and the two seriously wounded rally-goers, James Copenhaver and David Dutch, who are suing the federal government for alleged negligence.
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who → do → negligence
And so does the American public.
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public → do → ?
The latest trove of files was released by Grassley, in his role as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, as part of his ongoing inquiry into the Butler assassination attempt.
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trove → release → attempt
Slap at the Biden FBI
But why did it take a 93-year-old senator, as legendary as he is, to extract useful information about Crooks?
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he → slap → Crooks
He first requested the Crooks files in July 2024 under Freedom of Information laws and was ignored.
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He → request → laws
A year later Fitton was forced to sue the FBI to start producing documents in dribs and drabs.
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Fitton → force → dribs
He says at the slow rate they’re going, it will take “12.5 years to produce it all.”
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it → say → it
“I’ve been saying forever now, we have got to have a full accounting of everything that happened on that day,” Hawley told Fox News Digital.
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Hawley → say → Digital
“And I still don’t think we’ve gotten a full accounting.
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we → think → accounting
Pretty much everything we know about this is from whistleblowers.
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we → know → whistleblowers
Otherwise we run the risk of things like this happening again.”
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things → run → this
The latest Grassley trove included FBI interviews in July, August and December 2024 with the attempted assassin’s father, Matthew Crooks, who revealed his late son’s obsession with guns and cybersecurity had accelerated in the period leading up to the attack.
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obsession → include → attack
Matthew unlocked his gun safe and handed his son the gun used to shoot Trump — a few hours before the would-be assassin climbed onto a rooftop and opened fire.
But the documents show that two months beforehand, Matthew had searched online for ways to prevent his son from accessing guns.
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Matthew → unlock → guns
The Butler rally was the first public event at which Trump was provided counter-sniper protection, after Secret Service leaders were provided a classified intelligence briefing about an Iranian plot to assassinate the then-presidential candidate.
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leaders → provide → candidate
While there were fatal flaws in the way the Secret Service handled security that day, without the counter-snipers, Thomas Crooks might have achieved his goal, although a local police officer fired the shot that hit Crooks’ rifle and stopped him from continuing to shoot.
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that → be → him
Dems might get gavel
Grassley is approaching the end of his term as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, with hyper-partisan Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to get the gavel if Democrats take over after the midterms.
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Democrats → get → midterms
That doesn’t bode well for transparency, judging by the twisted priorities in the farcical grilling of FBI Director Kash Patel at a Senate Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday.
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That → bode → hearing
Patel testified that Thomas Crooks acted alone.
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Crooks → testify → ?
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
