Schmitt pushes back on new FBI documents painting Trump rally shooter as lone wolf 

Newly released FBI documents reveal details about the gunman who in 2024 nearly assassinated President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, but Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, isn’t convinced federal authorities have the whole story.

The paper trail for 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks has remained thin since the shooting. New records turned over to Congress and reviewed by Fox News show Crooks bought gun parts using the alias “Bob Dole,” a longtime Kansas senator who was the 1996 Republican presidential nominee. He had no friends as a teenager, and his dad says he talked to himself.

Federal agents extracted data from 27 devices, finding no evidence he communicated with anyone other than his parents. Investigators also disclosed an anonymous donor paid for his body to be cremated shortly after the incident.

Schmitt, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pushed back on the idea Crooks was a lone wolf.

“I think it’s hard for people to accept that this guy was just a social outcast and perhaps almost pulled off one of the most devastating events in American history,” he told Fox News Tuesday. “I’m all in favor of continuing to ask important questions, and the FBI director I know would be open to that.”

Schmitt appeared uneasy about the mysterious donor funding the shooter’s cremation.

“This anonymous person paying for the cremation … I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just kind of seeing this in the last hour or so, but I think we want to be thorough here.”

Schmitt, a former Missouri attorney general, believes federal officials must better explain the catastrophic security breakdown that allowed Crooks to come within inches of shooting Trump.

“I think answers have been unsatisfactory about the breakdown that happened that day from a security perspective,” Schmitt said. “How he was able to get onto that roof and have such a clear line of sight. There’s just a lot of things that went wrong that day.”

Schmitt said the latest FBI documents give more information, but he doesn’t think this is the end of the road for the investigation.

FBI Director Kash Patel testified before the Judiciary Committee Tuesday about Crooks, but said his department was supporting the Secret Service, which was leading the investigation. 

(Image credit: Screenshot/Fox News)