FBI records show Thomas Crooks texted mystery contacts about 3D-printed parts and gifts

FBI files released Friday show Thomas Crooks messaged unknown contacts about 3D-printed parts and Christmas “gifts” before the Butler rally attack, and watchdogs say the redactions still hide too much.

Newly released FBI electronic communications detail how Thomas Crooks, the gunman who tried to kill President Trump in Butler, Pa., traded messages with mystery persons about 3D-printed “parts,” coded chats, and gifts months and years before the July 13, 2024 shooting.

The Post reported that Judicial Watch obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act request. The FBI marked the material “deemed pertinent” to the investigation of the assassination attempt that struck Trump in the ear, wounded James Copenhaver and David Dutch, and killed Corey Comperatore.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the files add pieces to a still-incomplete picture and pressed the bureau to stop the slow drip of heavily redacted records. FBI representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Readers tracking threats around Trump already know the pattern of close calls and security gaps, including when the FBI arrested a heavily armed man at a Trump golf course days before a presidential visit.

Unknown contact asked if Crooks 3D-printed “the parts”

On Feb. 9, 2023, an “unknown contact” messaged Crooks on his Samsung device after what appears to have been a fully redacted exchange. The contact wrote, “Woah that looks cool,” then asked a direct question.

The contact asked: “Did you 3D print the parts?”

Several hours later, Crooks answered: “Yes, except for the fan blades.”

The two then discussed coursework at different colleges. The colleges are not named in the released files. The identity of the contact remains withheld.

Those details land harder because Crooks’ father, Matthew, had already told investigators his son owned a 3D printer and once tried to fashion a handgun. Matthew described the homemade effort in plain terms.

"Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19,"

Matthew said he test-fired a single round, feared the frame would explode, and indicated he did not allow Thomas to use the 3D-printed Glock 19. The Post had previously reported on those 3D-printer experiments. The new message thread shows Crooks discussing printed “parts” with someone outside the family more than a year before Butler.

Christmas “gifts” and a long string of coded chats

On Christmas Day 2022, Crooks appears to have traded “gifts” with an unidentified individual. One message read, “Thanks for the gifts.” Crooks replied, “Your welcome. Thanks as well.”

The FBI included those notes among records it called pertinent to the assassination-attempt probe. The files do not explain what the gifts were or why the exchange mattered to investigators.

A separate chat thread ran from May 21, 2023, to January 3, 2024, between Crooks and a redacted recipient. Incoming messages are not included. What remains is a long stretch of one- and two-word replies and character strings: “Hello... Hello red...Hello red... Hdudhdbdbbd... 7888ejdj...Yolo... Ddodjjf... 890... Hdjd... Djdj... red... Yup red... Hello... Jhhhuuh... Hhdj... Jjjjjjjjjjjj... Hello red... Red red.”

Dozens of messages appear in the release. Names on the other side stay blacked out. The bureau has not publicly said why the short, repetitive “red” traffic cleared the “pertinent” bar while full identities did not.

Transparency fights over Trump-related cases keep surfacing in other arenas too, including when a New York prosecutor alleged Letitia James’ office ordered staff to target Trump without a legal basis.

Drone photos of stadiums, then Butler on rally day

The same FBI production covers Crooks’ drone. Agents extracted images and flight logs. Between February 6, 2024, and February 27, 2024, the drone captured aerial photos of PNC Park, Acrisure Stadium, railroad tracks, and other sites across Western Pennsylvania. PNC Park is home to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Acrisure Stadium is home to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

More consequential is the flight data from Butler itself on July 13, 2024. Records show a drone flight in Butler several hours before Crooks took aim and opened fire at the campaign rally.

That same afternoon, Trump was struck in the ear. James Copenhaver and David Dutch were wounded. Corey Comperatore was killed. Fitton noted that Copenhaver, severely injured in the attack, died last week, and used that loss to demand the full investigative file without further delay.

Security around the president remains a live concern for many voters, especially after an armed suspect filmed Trump security at a California golf course before a presidential visit.

Fitton demands the full file, not another redacted trickle

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, previously obtained federal investigative records that The Post reviewed last month. Those files also covered the father’s account of the 3D printer and the homemade Glock 19 attempt. The Judicial Watch release adds the mystery-contact texts and the drone material to the public record.

Fitton put the demand in direct language.

"These latest records reveal more pieces of the puzzle surrounding Thomas Crooks,"

He continued:

"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 released pages still leave basic questions open. Who were the unknown contact and the redacted chat partner? What did “fan blades” and “parts” refer to? What sat inside the fully redacted message before “Woah that looks cool”? Why did gift texts and nonsense strings qualify as pertinent while names stayed hidden? Motive language for the Butler attack does not appear in these documents.

Americans have watched enough high-profile Trump cases to recognize when agencies move at a crawl. Families of the wounded and the dead, and voters who saw a former president bloodied on live video, are entitled to the complete record, not another Friday dump of blacked-out pages.

When a gunman can discuss printed parts with unnamed people, fly a drone over a rally site hours before opening fire, and still leave the public reading redactions, the accountability clock is already late.