It’s been almost nine months since a seemingly mild-mannered 20-year-old attempted to assassinate then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a rally in Butler.
And we still have no good reason why.
Sources told The Post the FBI has obstructed efforts to solve the mystery of why Thomas Matthew Crooks, who left no manifesto, did what he did. It’s left local law enforcement as well as Crooks’ former friends, classmates and teachers frustrated.
Those who may know, Crooks’ parents Matthew and Mary, have refused all interviews and remain in their small, three-bedroom home here, sealed off from the world like hermits. Neighbors say they only leave the house at 3 am to buy groceries.
“By the way, why do we know nothing about that guy in Butler?” Elon Musk yelled out to the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, before warning that FBI Director “Kash (Patel) is going to get to the bottom of it.”
A veteran private investigator from Erie, Penn., who was hired shortly after the fateful July 13 event at Butler Farm to look into Crooks by a private client, told The Post he believes a “criminal network” was operating with him at the time of the assassination attempt, is still in existence and still wants to kill President Trump.
Doug Hagmann, whose team of six other investigators have been working the case for months and have interviewed more than 100 people, said they also conducted extensive geofencing analysis of cell phones and tablets not belonging to Crooks that were found with him at his home, at the rifle range where he took target practice, at the rally and at Bethel Park High School where he graduated in 2022.
“We don’t think he acted alone,” Hagmann told The Post. “This took a lot of coordination. In my view, Crooks was handled by more than one individual and he was used for this [assassination attempt]. And I wouldn’t preclude the possibility that there were people at the rally itself helping him.”
Hagmann said one of the electronic devices geolocated with Crooks at several different places at the time of the shooting is still pinging today — at Bethel Park High School.
Crooks, perched on a rooftop 130 yards away, opened fire onto the main stage in Butler minutes after Trump, 78, mounted it to warm up the crowd.
He fired eight shots, striking the former president in the right ear; killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore, 50, and seriously wounding two others, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 54.
The autopsy report indicates Crooks was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. on July 13 from a gunshot wound to the head by a counter-sniper.
Hagmann said he was personally escorted to the Butler County line and told to leave twice during the course of his team’s investigation. The people who did so were either federal agents or some type of private security.
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