FBI Docs: Trump Shooter Used 'Bob Dole' Alias
FBI Docs: Trump Shooter Used 'Bob Dole' Alias
The News
Newly disclosed FBI records say Thomas Matthew Crooks — the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — bought rifle parts under the false name "Bob Dole," and that an anonymous donor paid to have his body cremated days after he died.
The documents were provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and describe years of increasingly strange behavior by Crooks, who was 20 when he shot Trump in the ear and was killed by Secret Service fire.
Trump responded Tuesday by calling the 2024 attempt on his life a "Democrat Plot" and attacking former FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Timeline
Crooks opens fire at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounding the then-candidate in the ear. Secret Service agents kill Crooks at the scene.
Crooks' body is cremated. According to the records, his family could not cover the cost and an unidentified donor paid for it.
Federal records turned over to Grassley become public, detailing the "Bob Dole" alias used to order suspicious packages and rifle parts, and the anonymous cremation payment.
Trump posts that the attempt was a "Democrat Plot" and says Biden's FBI director "should pay a price."
Reactions
Trump was blunt on Truth Social: "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, according to the New York Post, which reported he also branded Wray a "dirty cop."
Raw Story reported that Trump went further Tuesday, explicitly alleging the shooting was a plot by Democrats to keep him out of the White House and arguing the former FBI director should face consequences.
Conservative outlets seized on the alias and the cremation payment as evidence the original investigation left too many questions open. The Post Millennial reported that Crooks' father told investigators his son had acted out on occasion in elementary school because "he was bored."
What's Next
Grassley's Judiciary Committee is the pipeline for the records, and more of the FBI's file on Crooks is expected to surface through that channel.
The open questions the documents do not answer — who paid for the cremation, and why the alias purchases were not flagged before the rally — are the ones lawmakers are likeliest to press the bureau on next.
More
The alias Crooks used, "Bob Dole," is the name of the late Republican senator and 1996 presidential nominee. The records say he used it to order packages, including rifle parts, ahead of the attack.
Poll
Should Congress reopen the investigation into the Butler assassination attempt?
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