President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the attempt on his life at a 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a “Democrat Plot,” claiming that federal investigators let critical evidence slip away and that new information has since come to light.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump accused the FBI under former President Joe Biden of failing to pursue the case properly against the man who shot him. “Everybody knows the Crooked Joe Biden FBI didn’t do what they should have with respect to the Lunatic who shot me in Butler, PA,” he wrote. “By the time I got into Office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone. New info was just found!”
He did not specify what that new information was, nor did he provide evidence for his assertion that the shooting was orchestrated as part of a Democratic effort. Trump went on to ask why the material had not surfaced earlier, writing, “This was all a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed.”
He also singled out former FBI Director Christopher Wray, calling him a “Dirty Cop” and saying he “should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt, and certainly for the things he said.” Wray led the bureau during the Biden administration and resigned in December 2024.
The Butler shooting
On July 13, 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump from the rooftop of a building near the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump was holding an outdoor rally. A bullet pierced the upper part of Trump’s right ear, and he was rushed off stage by Secret Service agents with blood visible across his face. Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper at the scene.
The attack killed one attendee, Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief who was shielding his wife and daughter when he was struck. Two other men, James Copenhaver and David Dutch, were wounded and survived.
Fox News report on Crooks
Trump’s post came the same day that Fox News published a report detailing previously unreported aspects of the investigation into Crooks. According to that report, Crooks received packages addressed to the alias “Bob Dole,” and he typically collected those packages before his father — who worked late — returned home. The report also said that Crooks had been cremated shortly after he was killed, with an anonymous donor covering the cost, according to documents cited by Fox News. A family attorney provided that information to investigators.
Trump did not directly reference the Fox News reporting in his Truth Social post, but the timing was immediate. The network’s findings quickly circulated among allies on Capitol Hill.
Mike Lee: ‘The American people still know very little’
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) weighed in on X, arguing that the public record on Crooks remains thin more than two years after the shooting. “More than two years after the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the American people still know very little about Thomas Crooks, the almost-successful assassin,” Lee wrote.
Lee’s complaint reflects a broader frustration among some Republicans who have long said the FBI’s investigation left unanswered questions about Crooks’s motives, his movements in the days and weeks before the rally, and how he was able to gain access to a rooftop with a clear sightline to the former president.
Federal officials have previously said Crooks acted alone and have not publicly identified a broader conspiracy behind the attack. A Senate committee investigation released after the shooting faulted the Secret Service for a series of security failures that day, including communication breakdowns and an inadequate perimeter around the rally site. The agency’s director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned under pressure days later.
Trump’s claim that the shooting was a “Democrat Plot” is his most direct public assertion tying the attack to his political opponents. It also revives his long-running criticism of the FBI’s handling of the case, which he has returned to repeatedly since leaving office and again after winning the 2024 election.
The White House and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the president’s post.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/15/trump-claims-assassination-attempt-in-butler-pennsylvania-was-democrat-plot-says-new-info-found/