Trump shooter Thomas Crooks sent bizarre coded texts about 3D-printed gun parts before attack
WASHINGTON, DC: Newly accessed FBI records are providing a closer look at Trump's Butler rally attacker Thomas Matthew Crooks’ digital activity in the period before he opened fire at President Donald Trump in 2024.
The documents, announced by Judicial Watch in a report published on Friday, October 2, contain an unusual conversation about 3D-printed components, a separate string of seemingly nonsensical messages and evidence that Crooks used a drone to photograph locations around Pittsburgh months before the shooting.
Thomas Crooks told a contact he 3D-printed the parts
Judicial Watch obtained the newly released material through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records tied to the FBI’s investigation of the Butler shooting.
According to the watchdog, the latest disclosure spans 249 pages, though many sections of the documents remain blacked out.
Among the newly revealed records is a February 2023 conversation involving Crooks and an unidentified contact about 3D printing.
The person asked Crooks if he had made certain components using a 3D printer.
Crooks said he had, but noted that he had not printed the fan blades.
The contact then reacted positively to what appears to have been an image or other material that remains redacted in the FBI records.
The released documents do not clarify what the 3D-printed components were ultimately meant to be used for.
The FBI records do not establish that the February 2023 exchange was connected to the shooting Crooks carried out more than a year later.
Still, the disclosure adds another detail to earlier findings about his interest in producing firearm components with a 3D printer.
Records previously released to the Senate Judiciary Committee included an interview with Crooks’ father, who told investigators that his son had made a Glock 19 with a 3D printer.
His father reportedly worried that the homemade firearm could malfunction and subsequently barred Crooks from using it.
Unusual digital trail raises questions
Between May 2023 and January 2024, Crooks exchanged messages with another person whose identity is redacted.
The messages attributed to Crooks include isolated words, numbers and strings of apparently random characters.
The responses from the other participant were completely blacked out in the documents, leaving the public without the surrounding context.
The FBI had classified the conversation as relevant to its investigation, but the released material does not explain what the messages meant or whether they represented an actual code.
The records also reveal that investigators extracted data from a drone associated with Crooks.
An FBI laboratory examination recovered 40 photographs and eight flight logs.
The images were captured during February 2024 and showed locations in the Pittsburgh area.
Seven of the recorded flights took place around the Allegheny-West area, while another flight occurred in Butler on July 13, 2024, the day Crooks attacked Trump's rally.
The newly released material therefore provides evidence that Crooks had been operating a drone months before the Butler shooting.
It does not, however, establish from the released records what purpose every flight served.
