Thomas Matthew Crooks was 20 years old when he climbed onto the
roof of the AGR building in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fired eight shots
at Donald Trump. One bullet clipped the former president’s ear. Another killed
50-year-old fire chief Corey Comperatore, who died shielding his family. Two more
men, James Copenhaver and David Dutch, were critically wounded. Crooks was shot
dead by a Secret Service sniper. And for more than two years,
the question has remained: who was he talking to? What was he
planning? And did anyone else know what he was about to do?
Now, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the
conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, we finally have some answers. And they
are more disturbing than anyone expected. The FBI released 37 pages of
heavily redacted documents in September 2026. And buried inside those pages is
a trail of text messages that paint a picture of a young
man who was not just planning a political assassination. He was building
something. He was receiving packages from overseas. He was flying drones over
stadiums. And he was communicating in a language that no one has
been able to decode. Let me take you through what we know.
On February 9, 2023, nearly eighteen months before the Butler shooting, Crooks
received a text message from an individual the FBI has only ever
described as an “unknown contact.” The message asked a simple question: “Did
you 3D print the parts?” Crooks responded several hours later. He said,
“Yes, except for the fan blades.” The unknown contact replied, “Woah that
looks cool.” And then the conversation continued, with the contact asking about
“parts” in response to a message from Crooks that the FBI completely
redacted. We do not know what those parts were. We do not
know what they were for. We do not know who the unknown
contact was. And we do not know why the FBI has never
been able to identify them. But that is not the strangest part.
The FBI also released a second series of messages, this time between
Crooks and a second unidentified individual. These messages were sent between May
2023 and January 2024. And they are almost entirely incomprehensible. They read,
and I am quoting directly from the documents: “Hello… Hello red… Hello
red… Hdudhdbdbbd… 7888ejdj… Yolo… Ddodjjf… 890… Hdjd… Djdj… red… Yup red… Hello…
Jhhhuuh… Hhdj… Jjjjjjjjjjjj… Hello red… Red red.” That is it. That is
the entire conversation. The FBI redacted every response from the other party.
So we have no idea if these messages were code. We have
no idea if they were inside jokes. We have no idea if
“red” was a person, a color, a warning, or a signal. What
we do know is that Crooks sent these messages for eight months.
And then, on July 13, 2024, he tried to kill a former
president. But the text messages are only part of the story. The
Judicial Watch documents also reveal that Crooks received a package from Hong
Kong. The shipping company DHL sent a notification about it. We do
not know what was in the package
roof of the AGR building in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fired eight shots
at Donald Trump. One bullet clipped the former president’s ear. Another killed
50-year-old fire chief Corey Comperatore, who died shielding his family. Two more
men, James Copenhaver and David Dutch, were critically wounded. Crooks was shot
dead by a Secret Service sniper. And for more than two years,
the question has remained: who was he talking to? What was he
planning? And did anyone else know what he was about to do?
Now, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the
conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, we finally have some answers. And they
are more disturbing than anyone expected. The FBI released 37 pages of
heavily redacted documents in September 2026. And buried inside those pages is
a trail of text messages that paint a picture of a young
man who was not just planning a political assassination. He was building
something. He was receiving packages from overseas. He was flying drones over
stadiums. And he was communicating in a language that no one has
been able to decode. Let me take you through what we know.
On February 9, 2023, nearly eighteen months before the Butler shooting, Crooks
received a text message from an individual the FBI has only ever
described as an “unknown contact.” The message asked a simple question: “Did
you 3D print the parts?” Crooks responded several hours later. He said,
“Yes, except for the fan blades.” The unknown contact replied, “Woah that
looks cool.” And then the conversation continued, with the contact asking about
“parts” in response to a message from Crooks that the FBI completely
redacted. We do not know what those parts were. We do not
know what they were for. We do not know who the unknown
contact was. And we do not know why the FBI has never
been able to identify them. But that is not the strangest part.
The FBI also released a second series of messages, this time between
Crooks and a second unidentified individual. These messages were sent between May
2023 and January 2024. And they are almost entirely incomprehensible. They read,
and I am quoting directly from the documents: “Hello… Hello red… Hello
red… Hdudhdbdbbd… 7888ejdj… Yolo… Ddodjjf… 890… Hdjd… Djdj… red… Yup red… Hello…
Jhhhuuh… Hhdj… Jjjjjjjjjjjj… Hello red… Red red.” That is it. That is
the entire conversation. The FBI redacted every response from the other party.
So we have no idea if these messages were code. We have
no idea if they were inside jokes. We have no idea if
“red” was a person, a color, a warning, or a signal. What
we do know is that Crooks sent these messages for eight months.
And then, on July 13, 2024, he tried to kill a former
president. But the text messages are only part of the story. The
Judicial Watch documents also reveal that Crooks received a package from Hong
Kong. The shipping company DHL sent a notification about it. We do
not know what was in the package