Newly released FBI files on Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, expose a pattern of secretive behavior and an alias used to acquire suspicious packages, while the full scope of the security breakdown that let him get within rifle range remains unanswered.

The documents, turned over to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley as part of his ongoing inquiry into the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt, detail a would-be killer whose emotional detachment dated back to childhood and whose planning evaded the notice of his own family. Fox News' America Reports aired a segment on September 16 breaking down the findings, with co-anchor John Roberts walking through Crooks' SAT score and his use of the alias "Bob Dole" to order packages. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., joined the broadcast to discuss what he called massive security failures surrounding the rally.

The FBI files paint a picture of a young man who gave almost no outward warning. Just The News reported that the documents describe Crooks as "emotionless since birth," a characterization drawn from interviews with people who knew him. His family told investigators his actions came as a complete surprise. His motive remains unknown, the FBI has not publicly identified one, and the documents provided to Grassley do not resolve the question.

What the files do confirm is that Crooks operated under a layer of deception. He used the name "Bob Dole", the late Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, while ordering packages investigators described as suspicious. The specific contents of those packages, and the dates and locations of the orders, have not been made public. An anonymous donor paid to have Crooks' body cremated after the shooting, a detail that surfaced in the same FBI document release.

Grassley's inquiry drags answers out of the FBI two years later

The documents reached Grassley's committee more than two years after the Butler rally shooting. That lag has frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who say the FBI slow-walked its cooperation with congressional oversight. Schmitt, appearing on Fox News, focused on the security breakdown that allowed Crooks to reach an unguarded rooftop with a clear line of sight to the former president.

Schmitt is not alone in pressing the issue. Sen. Josh Hawley previously released a whistleblower report that detailed specific failures, including the decision to leave the rooftop Crooks fired from completely unguarded. That single lapse, a building within easy rifle range of the stage, has become the central symbol of the Secret Service's performance that day.

The broader question of what the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security knew, and when, is now the subject of active litigation. America First Legal filed a lawsuit alleging that both agencies illegally concealed records related to the assassination attempt. AFL submitted Freedom of Information Act requests seeking documents about Secret Service hiring standards and federal communications from the day of the shooting. The group says it received no responses.

AFL Executive Director Gene Hamilton framed the lawsuit in blunt terms:

"We are committed to obtaining these records so that the American people can see for themselves exactly what senior DHS leadership was prioritizing in its mission, and why more resources were not devoted to the protection of President Donald J. Trump."

The lawsuit adds a legal dimension to a controversy that has, until now, played out mostly through congressional hearings and inspector general reviews. If the courts compel disclosure, the public may finally learn what internal communications looked like in the hours before and after the shooting, and whether anyone in the chain of command flagged the rooftop vulnerability before Crooks exploited it.

Trump points to 'new information' and calls Butler shooting a 'Democrat Plot'

The document release landed in an already volatile political environment. One day before the Fox News segment aired, on September 15, Trump publicly accused Democrats of orchestrating the assassination attempt. Trump called it a "Democrat Plot," claiming that "new information" had just been found. He did not specify what information he was referencing or provide supporting evidence.

Trump's statement sharpened the partisan divide around the investigation. Democrats have not publicly responded to the specific accusation. The FBI documents released to Grassley do not contain any evidence linking the shooting to a political party or organized conspiracy. The bureau has consistently described Crooks as a lone actor, though it has acknowledged that his motive remains undetermined.

The political backdrop extends well beyond the assassination attempt itself. The Trump administration has been navigating a series of high-profile personnel and institutional confrontations, including recent leadership turmoil at the Pentagon, that have kept questions of government accountability and institutional trust at the center of the national conversation.

Meanwhile, the FBI under Director Kash Patel has signaled a willingness to cooperate more openly with congressional oversight than the bureau did under previous leadership. Patel's tenure has included a number of unconventional moves, including a planned October trip to Russia, that have drawn both praise from allies and scrutiny from critics. Whether the Crooks document release reflects a genuine shift toward transparency or a selective disclosure timed for political effect is a question neither the FBI nor Grassley's office has directly addressed.

Key questions the documents still do not answer

For all the new details, the FBI files leave the most important questions untouched. No motive has been established. The number and type of firearms Crooks acquired, and the timeline of those purchases, remain unclear from the publicly available summaries. The "Bob Dole" alias raises obvious follow-up questions: Did any vendor flag the suspicious name? Did any law enforcement database catch it before the shooting?

The mechanism by which the documents were released, whether through a formal congressional subpoena, a voluntary FBI disclosure, or some other channel, has not been specified. That procedural gap matters because it determines whether the FBI cooperated willingly or was compelled to hand over the material.

Government agencies' handling of sensitive investigative records has become a recurring flashpoint. From federal corruption probes involving secret recordings to fights over classified material and FOIA compliance, the pattern is consistent: the public learns what happened only after sustained pressure from lawmakers, litigants, or whistleblowers. The Crooks case fits that pattern precisely.

Schmitt and other Republican senators have signaled they will continue pressing for additional disclosures, including the full universe of Secret Service communications from the day of the rally. The AFL lawsuit, if successful, could accelerate that process. But for now, the American public is left with fragments, an alias, a cremation paid for by an unknown donor, a shooter described as emotionless from birth, and a security perimeter that failed at the one point where failure was lethal.

Two years after a gunman nearly killed a former president on live television, the federal government still cannot explain why he did it or how he got the shot. That is not a mystery. It is an indictment of every agency that had a job to do that day and did not do it.