Miranda Devine Demands Full Truth on Trump Assassination Attempt as FBI Fails to Explain Crooks’ Motive

In a column Monday, Devine wrote that Americans are still waiting for a coherent explanation of how 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb onto a rooftop overlooking Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally and fire eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle, grazing Trump’s ear and killing firefighter Corey Comperatore. “We are all owed a better explanation,” Devine wrote, saying the president himself remains “unsatisfied” with the answers the FBI and Secret Service have provided.

Devine noted that then-FBI Director Chris Wray initially told Congress the bureau found nothing in Crooks’ online history signaling a motive or ideology. But just a week later, Wray’s deputy Paul Abbate testified Crooks had posted antisemitic, anti-immigration, and violent political comments. Devine reports that was only part of the story — and that Abbate “misled Congress by omission.” A source uncovered Crooks’ hidden digital footprint, revealing a dramatic ideological flip between January and August 2020, when he went from “rabidly pro-Trump” to “rabidly anti-Trump.” The source identified 17 online accounts, including on YouTube, Discord, Snapchat, Venmo, Zelle, Quora, GroupMe, Chess.com, and DeviantArt.

Contrary to the FBI’s claim that Crooks lacked a motive or online trail, Devine reports Crooks left a long, visible history of violent rhetoric: “The only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks… track down any important people … and try to assassinate them.” “The danger Crooks posed was visible for years. … His radicalization and obsession with political violence were all documented under his real name.” Worse, none of this appeared in the official congressional report released in December 2024.

Devine also reports Crooks used they/them pronouns on DeviantArt, a platform tied to the “furry” subculture. Two accounts linked to his email posted violent art and fetish imagery, including content involving muscular women. His YouTube history showed repeated searches for “muscle mommy” videos and female bodybuilders. One Crooks-linked PayPal account was under the alias “Rod Swanson” — the name of a former senior FBI agent involved in investigating the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. Swanson told the Post he has no connection to the shooter, does not use PayPal, and said if the FBI had known this, “they would have reached out to me right away.” YouTube suspended Crooks’ main account one day after the Trump shooting — after allowing five years of violent threats to remain online.

Devine argues the FBI and Secret Service have failed to provide a clear, honest accounting of Crooks’ motive, background, or possible influences — failures she says fuel conspiracy theories by leaving massive holes in the timeline. “The official narrative claimed he acted alone and without a clear motive,” Devine wrote. “Yet Crooks left a digital trail of violent threats, extremist ideology, and admiration for mass violence.”