Trump's Would-Be Assassin Had Help

What we saw was not the work of a deranged 20 year old, it was an expertly conducted assassination attempt that required significant foreknowledge and planning.

[I’m updating this article as new information comes in, so expect changes.]

Everything about this stinks and it keeps getting smellier by the minute. So what do we know about the would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks?

He was a 20 year old with zero social media presence. No friends have come forward to talk about him. No statement from the parents has been forthcoming. We know virtually nothing about his background. How many 20 year olds do you know who have zero social media presence and no real life friends who would come forward after an event like this?

One of his classmates said Crooks was a know-it-all who called him stupid for being a Hispanic that supported Trump. He uses the words “smug” and “arrogant” to describe Crooks (sounds like a typical Democrat to me). He goes on to say Crooks made threats to shoot up his school, which were largely blamed on Crooks’ group of reclusive friends, but Crooks’ name kept coming up in the investigation. He also refutes the notion that Crooks was excessively bullied. He concludes by saying, “The signs were there, and somebody definitely had to have known. Someone should have known. He was not a loner.”

Apparently Crooks is also a technical encryption genius, because the FBI can’t get into his cellphone. So that must mean he had a phone with no face-ID enabled lock screen, no finger print reader, no simplistic passcode and it also must have high level data encryption. So this kid must have been running something like a Blackphone or something similar. How many 20 year olds do you know that are running hardened cellphones? [update: I was proven right on this]

Crooks was reportedly rejected from his high school’s rifle team because he was such a bad shot that he was actually dangerous, and because he made off-color jokes that caused the instructor to worry enough that he kept him off the team.

But apparently he was just fine at his job as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where “he provided food and care for post-hospital elderly and sick people.” His employer said he had a clean background check and “performed his job without concern.”

When he wasn’t helping the elderly or hanging out by himself in his parent’s basement, he apparently also became an improvised explosives expert. Authorities report they found numerous bombs in and around his car, as well as in his home.

We also know that Crooks apparently became an expert tactician, competent marksman and grew out his hair over the course of a year. He knew where counter-sniper teams were placed in order to give himself the best approach advantage without being seen by them, even though it exposed him to view of onlookers. Here we can see a large tree obscured his approach from the counter-sniper team on top of the hangar behind Trump, allowing him to get onto the roof and crawl into position without being seen by them until he was in a firing position.

He also knew exactly where the stage would be, and that being at the edge of the manufacturing center’s roof would give him a clear line of site to Trump, around the trees and the bleachers.

I wonder if he also knew that Secret Service resources were diverted from the Trump rally to a Jill Biden event and NATO summit that day, and that there would be no drone or helicopter overwatch that would alert the Secret Service to his presence?

Rally attendees were screaming and pointing at Crooks for several minutes, with some even capturing video of Crooks crawling into position prior to him taking the shots, yet somehow no one got Trump off the stage?

He proceeded into his firing position after being confronted by a police officer who climbed up the ladder behind him was boosted up by a second officer to the roofline, allowing the officer to peer onto the roof as he hung there; at which point Crooks pointed his gun at him and he dropped down. The officers immediately reported a gunman on the roof, yet somehow no one got Trump off the stage? [update: eye witnesses say this never happened, but the guy who actually took the video of Crooks on the roof said it did happen.]

We can see a counter-sniper team on the hangar constantly looking in the direction of Crooks for over five minutes prior to him taking the shots, so they must have known about his presence, yet they did not shoot and no one got Trump off the stage?

While in hindsight it might seem obvious that where Crooks took his shots from was the ideal location, try and imagine you are Crooks trying to come up with a plan to assassinate Trump at a completely novel outdoor event. Think about the level of planning and foreknowledge it would take to determine where the best place to shoot from would be. You’d have to know where the stage would be, where the bleachers would be, which building tops gave you an unobstructed line of site while keeping your approach hidden from counter-sniper teams, and how you would get onto the roof without being stopped or spotted before you could get your shots off.

You’d have to scout the location well in advance, know the height of the bleachers, know the height of the stage, where the sniper teams would be, etc.. How long before the event would the stage and bleachers be erected? How much time would you have to plan? Would you be counting on sheer luck that there were no drones or helicopters providing overwatch of the venue or would you have a plan to deal with hiding from those as well?

It’s not sheer dumb luck that Crooks chose the absolute ideal location to shoot from, or that there were no drones providing over-watch, or that the police apparently lacked a away to communicate with the SS team that was stage-side. This was expert level planning, with foreknowledge on where counter-sniper teams would be, how communications were being handled, what position provided the best cover and obstacle avoidance, along with skilled marksmanship.

While Crooks was rejected from his high school rifle team for EXTREMELY poor marksmanship and making off-color comments, on the day of the assassination attempt we saw a competent shooter place a 150 yard shot that only missed Trump’s skull because of a last millisecond head movement by Trump and a very strong wind. This is not the shooting of someone who couldn’t hit a target 50 feet away, as members of the high school rifle team claim. Consider the adrenaline Crooks had to fight in order to maintain a steady shot after being confronted by a cop and knowing his life would almost certainly be ended the minute he opened fire, yet he still managed to hit his target.

[update] During a recent Senate briefing, it was reported that Crooks visited the rally site a few days in advance. So no one was watching the site? Can you believe this? They just let anyone stop by and completely case the joint prior to the President’s arrival? I’m guessing they got that info from cell tower pings.

Interestingly, Crooks was featured in a Black Rock advertisement as a PA high school student in 2022. What are the odds of that? Consider that the CIA is deeply in-bed with media production companies. Did a CIA asset spot Crooks during this ad shoot and recognize Crooks might be a valuable patsy given his awkwardness and loner behavior? It would certainly be very interesting to see who was a part of that production team.

Update 7/16/24:

Former Canadian special operations sniper Clayton Morris, who worked specifically in jobs providing VIP protection, including protecting the Canadian Prime Minister in Afghanistan, just gave an interview on the Redacted podcast discussing his thoughts on what happened.

Clayton is adamant that the shooter had help from people on the inside. Saying that it is impossible for a person to get into an elevated shooting position with a rifle within 150 yards of a President unless they had assistance from security in doing so. To me, this is obvious.

In fact, the security lapses were so egregious that even a t-shirt vendor knew something was gravely wrong that day. The Gateway Pundit interviewed Lori Levi, a Trump merchandize vendor who has attended virtually every Trump rally. Given Lori’s incredible amount of familiarity with the security surrounding Trump rallies, I feel her insights should be given very heavy weight.

Lori tells GWP, “I knew something was wrong the day before when I came to set up in Butler, Pennsylvania.

They weren’t blocking the line of sight like they have in every other location. Typically they would put cranes, or heavy machinery, in the way to block a clear line-of-sight to Trump as a security protocol. I kept thinking that his security detail was going to bring it in later, but they never did.

When we came in on Friday, after attending hundreds of Trump rallies, we noticed the situation did not look right. They can’t protect him from here. I just had this terrible feeling. I knew something was off.”

Lori goes on to say, “I do not believe that some 20 year old kid could have pulled this off, the Secret Service does not make these kind of mistakes. I don’t believe this story. I think they let him get the shot off first.”

I also want to highlight the timing and location of this assassination attempt. This occurred just a few days before the RNC National Convention, where Trump would be officially nominated and the electors would be legally bound to vote for him, and it occurred just prior to Trump publicly naming his VP pick. Had the shooter been successful, I can almost guarantee whoever the RNC nominee would be that replaced Trump would be a 100% pro-Ukraine WWIII lunatic.

Not only is the timing grossly suspicious, but the location is also highly suspect. Many people may not know this, but Pennsylvania has the most corrupt political machinery in the nation. The local and state governments there are completely out of control.

The Westmoreland County Sheriff, James Albert, is on record saying he was ordered not to send deputies to last week’s Trump rally, but he sent a few to help out anyways. According to the AP, there were a total of four sniper teams on site that day. Two from local police and two SS teams. [Update: this turned out to be a lie as well, there were only two sniper teams. Update 2: this was a lie as well, there were actually three] So you’re telling me that FOUR sniper teams couldn’t spot and kill a sniper in the absolute most obvious position to shoot from until AFTER he managed to shoot President Trump?

There’s no way this wasn’t an inside job just based on the timing and location alone.

Update 2:

Now there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this was an inside job at the highest level. Secret Service head Kimberly Cheatle just came out and said, “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof, and so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”

Absurd. And she refuses to step down. She was 100% in on this.

Also, the NY Post is reporting counter-sniper teams were inside the building Crooks was shooting on top of and that he was spotted on the building with a range finder, acting suspicious, 26 minutes 3 hours beforehand. The level of absurdity here is wayyyyy beyond incompetence.

Update 7/17/24:

Looks like I have to keep correcting this article because the SS is lying about what took place. The local cops are now calling the SS liars about cops being inside the building, and about there being four sniper teams on site. The building was apparently empty and there were only two sniper teams covering the stage [update: this was a lie by the local PD, there were three sniper teams]. So the entire industrial complex, directly adjacent to the stage, was unguarded. No cops there at all. The cops who were called over by the people were on traffic duty. [update: we now know there was in fact an AGR local PD sniper team on the second floor of the adjacent building]

Dan Bongino is reporting that there were supposed to be local cops stationed on the roof of that building according to SS planning documents. The local cops are saying they told the SS that they could not do security work and would only be doing traffic. So the local cops are saying the SS knew those buildings would be unguarded, even though the SS planning documents said local cops would be guarding them.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the counter-sniper team on top of the hangar was in a position where their line of sight to the roof of the manufacturing complex was obstructed by a tree. Senior officials also made sure there was an unobstructed line of sight to the stage. Whoever was responsible for setting up the line of sight obstructions also needs to be interrogated at GITMO to find out who gave the order to leave the stage unobstructed.

Remember, the Sheriff was ordered not to send anyone by the City Council. If the Sheriff had followed that order, there would have been absolutely no one watching that building at all. As it turns out, no one was. Did someone from the Biden administration have any contact with the City Council? That’s another thing that should be looked into.

CNN is reporting Crooks parents called the cops to report him missing at 11 PM, after they expected him back by 1 PM, so while it’s odd for a parent of an adult child to call the cops because their kid didn’t come home on time, it’s not unreasonable given what happened in their town to think they would. By that time I’m sure they were aware someone tried to kill Trump, and they know their kid is missing and armed with a rifle. I don’t think his parents were in on it.

During the Senate briefing I discussed earlier, it was also revealed that Crooks used encrypted communications. So I was right about him using a hardened cellphone and why they had trouble getting any data from it. This particular fact makes me believe he was communicating with CIA assets. Lone wolfs don’t need to talk to their drinking buddies with encrypted cellphones.

Crooks really believed he could get away with this - and if those snipers on the hangar hadn’t gotten a lucky break in the trees and his explosives went off as planned, he just might have.

Finally there is this:

I think we know.

Oh, one last thing. When was the last time CNN covered a Trump rally live besides this one?

Update 7/18/24:

Trauma surgeon says the photos of Crooks’ body on the roof appear as if the body was moved due to the lack of visible blood. I also thought the lack of blood was a bit odd.

There is another oddity. The ladder in the photos that are circulating is a 10’ ladder that is too big to fit in Crooks’ car, so it must be a SWAT ladder. GWP is reporting that Crooks bought a five foot ladder, but there’s no sign of it anywhere, and no clear way he could have gotten on to the roof, yet clearly he was up there. And we know from witness video his body appears to be in roughly the same location.

Now this is interesting. GWP is reporting witnesses saw a sniper team on the second floor of the building adjacent to the building Crooks was on top of. Remember, local PD said they had NO snipers on station that day, but SS documentation, according to Dan Bongino’s sources, says local PD was assigned to be on the roof of the building.

NY Post sources say there were in fact snipers in the building on the second story. The SS director made a statement saying that snipers were moved from the roof to the second story. So who were they? The two SS sniper teams we know of were on the opposite side of the rally. Local PD says it wasn’t them, and SS says it wasn’t them, and Bongino said there were only two SS teams - the two we can see on top of the hangars behind Trump.

Update 7/20/24:

GWP is now reporting that “Federal law enforcement sources tell Fox that while Crooks snuck up on that roof, a Butler Township emergency services unit, sniper team, was looking out of the windows of that same building, watching for any suspicious activity.” And that this local police sniper team also took a shot at Crooks, but missed. - RIDICULOUS! They are just telling us this now? A week later?

Further, it would be impossible for a police sniper team to miss a shot like that at 20 yards or less. It’s impossible that they would have missed. Eye witnesses report the police snipers on the second story (if that’s what they were) did not shoot. They stood by and watched. Also, those same witnesses say they watched Crooks the entire time he was on the roof and never saw a local cop confront Crooks, or Crooks ever point his weapon at a cop.

Sen. Ron Johnson is saying the SS didn’t even show up to brief the local cops on the day of the event. The local police were completely disconnected from the SS detail that was assigned to Trump. The cops had no direct communication with them at all.

Johnson is also saying that local PD was instructed to take all photographic evidence of the shooter’s body and forward it to an ATF agent. That agent has since “gone dark” and no one knows what happened to him. It’s unclear if the local police still have copies of the photos they took. Why the ATF would be involved at all is a complete mystery.

FBI was also directed to clean up the scene of Crooks’ body - this is unheard of. Police do not clean up crime scenes - ever. Yet here we see a man in an FBI shirt hosing down the roof of the building.

Another interesting point brought up by Legally Armed America; what do you notice about this shooting crime scene photo that we’ve never seen from any Trump assassination crime scene photo?

Every shell casing is numbered and photographed before being moved. It should be easy to determine how many rounds Crooks fired based on the shell cases left behind. Why hasn’t this information been released? We have photos of the body being moved and the crime scene being washed down by FBI agents, but zero photos of evidence markers being placed anywhere at the scene.

The amount of story changing and lies coming out of all of these “sources” are likely to muddy the waters, trying to sow confusion about what is fact and what is fiction. The local PD was in on it. The Secret Service was in on it. HSI was in on it. Unfortunately, no government sources can be trusted; even those sources that are coming from trustworthy people like Dan Bongino. They could be releasing information that is intentionally misleading.

The sources we can trust are eye witness accounts from rally attendees, but unfortunately, they are often confused about what they think they saw. For example, the witnesses who say they saw cops pointing weapons at the water tower were likely pointing in the direction of the building since the tower and the building are adjacent to each other.

The coverup and lies are flooding in. It’s unlikely we will ever learn the full truth. This was clearly a black operation being carried out by criminal entities in the government. Only they know the full extent of what happened, and the chances of any of them talking are zero.

Interesting side note: it came out that Victoria Nuland, who was the architect of the 2014 coup in Ukraine, amongst numerous other heinous acts, did an interview with foreign press three days before the assassination attempt, where she said that if Putin was counting on Trump winning the election, he would be in for a surprise. The micro-expressions she exhibits while saying this indicate a “duper’s delight” - a flash of a smile that psychopaths make when they are manipulating someone. After watching the video, it seems pretty clear to me that she knew this was about to happen.

7/22/24 Update:

SS Director Cheeto refused to answer any questions after being subpoenaed to testify before Congress. She also refused to provide a record of the communications that took place. She basically thumbed her nose at Congress and told them to fuck off. Odds are 1 in a 1000 that Congress does anything about it.

We also have video out of the second story window where supposedly local police snipers were stationed the day of the shooting. They had a perfect view of Crooks out the window.

Dr. Chris Martenson put out a video where he conducted an audio analysis of the shooting and reviewed video evidence. Two peculiar things stood out. The first three shots all sounded the same, but the next five all had a distinctly different sound, as if they were fired from a different rifle or location. Also, there is video of Crooks taking aim on the rooftop, and as we hear the first shot ring out, there is no indication that Crooks actually fired his rifle. He experienced no recoil, there was no muzzle smoke, there was no shell casing flying out of his rifle, his hair long hair didn’t move a millimeter, nothing.

I find the video of Crooks on the roof just before the shooting started to be highly suspicious. The guy shooting the video is wildly swinging the camera around like a maniac, barely even getting Crooks on video, and then shutting the camera off right when we hear a gunshot go off. The only copies of this seem to be released through the media outlet TMZ, with a gigantic TMZ watermark on it - so the video has clearly been edited. The audio could be completely desynced and manipulated for all we know. Hell, the audio of the shooting might not even be from this camera. While Chris Martenson’s analysis of the video is correct, showing that there is no recoil when the shots go off, the video itself is highly suspect. No original source video has ever been published. Why? I bet the guy who took it got paid big money for a TMZ exclusive. TMZ is a sleazebag organization. They are worse than the National Enquirer. It would be just like them to dub audio of the shooting overtop of a video like this for clicks. The audio track from this video cannot be trusted.

Sen. Johnson released a preliminary timeline of events that day. The most interesting part to me was this:

•   6:05pm—AGR sniper 1 later communicates that Crooks is seen moving northeast “in the direction of Sheetz” and that Crooks has a backpack.

•   6:06-6:12pm—AGR sniper 1 goes to ground floor of the building to meet local law enforcement patrol to alert them to Crooks presence.

•   Approx. 6:11pm—Crooks begins shooting.

AGR Sniper 1 was doing all the reporting and photo taking, and was sent to the ground floor immediately before Crooks started shooting. So assuming he was working as part of a two man team, that leaves AGR Sniper 2 all alone on the second floor. I want to know everything there is to know about AGR Sniper 2, who he is, what department he is from, what his background is, EVERYTHING.

I’m also skeptical of the claim that the SS sniper team on top of the far airplane hangar actually took Crooks out with a headshot. If that were true, Crooks head would have exploded from the force of the round. To me, that picture of Crooks’ dead body looks more like someone shot him from behind, which is where those supposed police snipers were.

This is what happens to an anatomically correct dummy’s head (which is a very expensive target used to test weapon lethality) when it is struck by the type of weapon the SS sniper teams were using:

The Oversight Project just released a data analysis of phone location data related to Crooks’ home. They tracked devices that regularly visited Crooks’ home and place of work. Someone who regularly visited Crooks home and work also visited a building in Washington, DC located in Gallery Place, which is in the same vicinity of an FBI office on June 26, 2023. Another device visited Plymouth, MA. They also found another device linked to Crooks’ work that traveled to Butler, PA (the location of the assassination attempt) on July 4th and 8th.

It was also reported the Crooks flew a drone around the rally a few hours before the shooting. Normally the airspace around events like this is blocked off to drones. Their GPS is deactivated within the zone and they will not respond to commands to fly around in the area. This no-fly zone was apparently never designated by the SS.

Update 7/23/24:

I’ve never seen this picture before. I found it on an internet message board. This appears to be a rifle camera attached to a sniper rifle located southwest of the stage.

Was the AP’s initial reporting correct? Were there actually four sniper teams on site that day? Some people are claiming that this is the sniper that took he kill shot on Crooks. Notice that the second story of the adjacent building where the AGR sniper team was located is completely obscured from this vantage point.

Reading Johnson’s report, he refers to local teams of snipers, and that local PD was told to go “sniper heavy” because SS would not be providing their own teams of snipers that day, but later changed their minds and did send their own SS teams of snipers to help cover the rally. - So it looks like I have to go back and update everything again!

Update 7/23/24:

SS Director Cheeto resigned today and the DHS announced a “bi-partisan” panel to look into the assassination attempt. The DHS panel is composed entirely of people who despise Trump, so I expect them to do everything possible to muddy the waters, lie and coverup any facts that might lead to us finding out what actually happened that day. Just for reference, one of the members is Mark Filip from the DoJ. In 2008 he was the guy who brokered the Jeffery Epstein plea deal. The head of it is Janet Napolitano, who is possibly the biggest Trump hater in the country. I’d bet a million dollars that if Janet had a free shot at Trump without consequences, she’d pull the trigger herself.

The House also announced a bi-partisan Task Force to look into what happened. They will be given subpoena power. We might get some useful information out of this one. I’m sure they will have a very difficult time trying to determine what the truth is given the massive amount of lies, stonewalling and disinformation being put out by the SS, DHS, FBI, CIA and HSI.

Sen. Johnson put out a statement saying eight shell casings were found near Crooks’ body. I don’t give this too much weight. It would be very easy for someone to drop some extra empty shell casings that were actually fired from Crooks’ rifle, given that Crooks was a member of a local shooting range where DHS and other government employees regularly trained.

Sen. Grassley put out a 3 minute clip of a body cam from one of the local cops who was on the roof next to the body while talking to an SS agent and a few other cops. There’s also another shorter clip. One thing I noticed is that there were no evidence markers placed, no shell casings visible, and the clip didn’t show us any of the area surrounding Crooks’ body where we could see for ourselves if Crooks was actually shot in the head or how many shell casings were present. Recall that the Butler County Sheriff told us none of the local cops were wearing body cams that day.

Update 7/24/24:

The Daily Mail released an article with a statement by witness John Malice, who is a military vet. Malice states, 'Right before he was shot by Secret Service, he had rolled over, got up,' Malice recalled. 'I have a picture of him with his rifle up and his rifle turned towards me and the other guys that were standing behind the tree - and at that second Secret Service shot him.' 

The article goes on to state:

The footage shows dozens of people screaming and trying to flee as eight discharges, fired in approximately 5.2 seconds, ring out.

Two final gunshots are then heard. The first counter shot, which insiders said came from a local sniper, was was fired roughly 5.5 seconds after Crooks opened fire.

He then stopped firing, which audio analysts claim indicates he had been struck. The Secret Service sniper's shot came 10 seconds later, CBS News reported. 

This set of facts makes a lot more sense to me. This means Crooks was likely not shot in the head, which lines up with how images of the body look. This makes me feel a lot more comfortable with the idea that Crooks was a lone shooter. That said, I still strongly believe Crooks was setup to succeed in getting his shots off by criminal elements in our government who knew what he was planning to do.

Update 7/25/24:

Sen. Grassley released the full 30 min long bodycam video taken by a Butler County police officer on the roof next to Crooks’ body immediately after he was killed. Grassley also issued a press release to go along with the footage.

Update 7/26/24:

Benny Johnson is reporting that a first-hand source of highest credentials told him, “There was a three man SWAT sniper team located in this position [the second story of the building adjacent to Crooks]. One member of the team went home early — not sure how this was allowed but it happened. The remaining two snipers positioned in this room were notified that a suspicious individual [Crooks] was lurking outside the building. One team member left his position to investigate, leaving just one sniper with overwatch of the roof.

The investigating team member found nothing and in the process of returning to his position realized he had forgotten his access card into the building. The last remaining sniper with overwatch LEFT [!!!] the position to retrieve his team member locked outside. Crooks crawled across the roof and fired on Trump while this fully-equipped sniper nest with a perfect view of Crooks assassin position was left completely UNMANNED.”

It goes without saying that the timing of this, where the entire sniper team that is supposed to be watching the roof just happens to leave their post at the exact moment Crooks climbs on top of the roof and fires shots at Trump, is utterly ridiculous. Also note that we have reports from other sources saying that this sniper team took a shot at Crooks and missed - so which story is true?

Update 7/27/24:

Bongino is reporting that sources told him local cops offered the SS the use of a drone for the event and the SS turned them down. Further, the new acting director of the SS, who was previously in charge of every-day direct protection operations, was not sending counter-snipers to sites that weren’t within a drivable distance from DC for the Trump detail. So Trump was going around the country with no counter-sniper detail at all - and the guy who made sure of that is now running the entire show at the Secret Service. Just crazy.

Update 7/29/24:

Newly released video that was previously confiscated by the FBI shows the area in front of the building Crooks shot from, along with the water tower, just prior to and during the shooting. There is no one visible on the water tower. Police can be seen surrounding the building, staring up at the roof, just prior to the shooting. They knew Crooks was up there and no one got Trump off the stage. The snipers who were supposed to be watching the roof both left their post. There’s no way this wasn’t a setup.

We also have an update on the congressional committee that will be assigned to conduct their own investigation into the assassination attempt. It will be a bunch of RINOs and democrats, so we shouldn’t expect to get anything out of this committee. Looks like the coverup is complete.

Update 7/31/24:

Sen. Grassley has put out a lot of supporting documentation that’s worth taking a look at. In his latest newsletter, he includes links to lots of photos, texts and documentation. I didn’t see any new revelations in it that I haven’t covered here already. If I missed something, let me know in the comments.

Update 8/8/24:

New bodycam footage of the cop who was hoisted up onto the roof by his buddy was released. I was 50/50 on whether this actually took place or not, but now we know for sure that it did. Unfortunately, there is no audio for the first 1:40 of the video.