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FBI Records Show Thomas Crooks Sent Coded Texts About 3D Printer Before Butler Rally Shooting
Newly released FBI records obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman in the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump, exchanged cryptic text messages about 3D printing and sent a series of nonsensical messages in the months before the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally shooting that killed one man and wounded two others.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who opened fire at Donald Trump's July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, sent a series of cryptic text messages about 3D printing and a string of nonsensical coded messages in the months before the attack, according to FBI records obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch.
The records show an exchange on Feb. 9, 2023, between Crooks and a person the FBI has described only as an «unknown contact.» That person asked Crooks, «Did you 3D print the parts?» Crooks replied, «Yes, except for the fan blades.» The contact responded, «Woah that looks cool,» and asked about the «parts» in reference to a Crooks message that the FBI redacted.
A second set of messages, exchanged between Crooks and another redacted party from May 21, 2023, to Jan. 3, 2024, consisted largely of odd one- or two-word messages. According to the documents, Crooks wrote: «Hello … Hello red … Hello red … Hdudhdbdbbd … 7888ejdj … Yolo … Ddodjjf … 890 … Hdjd … Djdj … red … Yup red … Hello … Jhhhuuh … Hhdj … Jjjjjjjjjjjj … Hello red … Red red.» The FBI redacted any responses from the other party.
The documents also included a notification from the shipping company DHL about a package Crooks received from Hong Kong, as well as roughly 40 drone photographs he took between Feb. 6 and Feb. 27, 2024. The images included pictures of PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium, the home venues of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Crooks' interest in 3D printing had been reported previously after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released documents showing that Crooks had tried to manufacture a Glock 19 handgun with a 3D printer. His father, Matthew Crooks, told investigators that his son had once succeeded in creating the weapon using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer, and a toaster oven. Fearing the gun would explode, the father said he forbade his son from using it.
The Butler shooting, one of the most serious security failures involving a U.S. presidential candidate in decades, killed 50-year-old fire chief Corey Comperatore, who died shielding his family from the gunfire. James Copenhaver, a 76-year-old veteran, was shot in the triceps and midsection, suffering injuries to vital organs including his kidneys and colon. He was released from the hospital a week after the shooting but continued to deal with complications in the years that followed. He died on Sept. 23, 2026, from those complications.
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said the newly released material adds to the public record but leaves major questions unanswered. «These latest records reveal more pieces of the puzzle surrounding Thomas Crooks,» Fitton said in a statement. «The FBI should stop the slow drip of heavily redacted records and immediately provide the full investigative record — especially since the death last week of James Copenhaver, who was severely injured from being shot during the assassination attempt on President Trump.»
The release is the latest in a series of partial disclosures that have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who have questioned why the FBI has withheld large portions of its investigative file. The texts, the Hong Kong package notification, and the drone photographs have not been publicly explained by the bureau, and it remains unclear whether investigators have identified the individuals with whom Crooks was communicating.
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