Tucker Carlson said Dan Bongino privately told him President Donald Trump shut down the Butler assassination attempt investigation, a claim Bongino rejected in a sharply worded response.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Tucker Carlson is claiming that Dan Bongino privately told him President Donald Trump shut down the investigation into the 2024 assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, an allegation Bongino has already denied.
Carlson made the claim during a Thursday appearance with Mario Nawfal, where he discussed lingering questions about the Butler shooting, his alleged conversations with Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel, and social media posts he said were connected to the shooter, Thomas Crooks.
Crooks, 20, was killed after firing from a perch during Trump’s 2024 rally in Butler. The absence of a manifesto and publicly known social media trail has fueled speculation over the shooter’s motive.
In the interview, Carlson said he had obtained social media posts by Crooks that he said the public had been told did not exist. Carlson said he contacted Patel and later Bongino about the material while Bongino was serving in the Trump administration.
“I know that, about Butler, I know that Trump shut down the investigation into Butler. That is a fact. Dan Bongino told me that when he worked at the FBI,” Carlson said.
Carlson said Bongino reacted strongly when confronted with the information.
“And Dan Bongino himself was terrified when I spoke to him in December. It’s such a long, boring story, but basically I came into possession, I beg your pardon, of, accidentally came into possession of a lot of the social media posts that we were told didn’t exist, that were posted by Thomas Crooks in the months and years before the shooting,” Carlson said. “And I was amazed that the FBI had lied about this. So I called Kash Patel and I later called Dan Bongino and I say, you know, what is this? I’m not attacking you, it was the previous FBI administration that did this. It was Chris Wray, but what is that?”
Carlson said the conversation changed his relationship with Bongino.
“And Dan Bongino became hysterical with me on the phone,” Carlson said. “I’ve known Dan a long time for many years and always gotten along with him. You know, whatever his faults, nice guy. Certainly very nice to me. I never had a problem with Dan, ever. And that problem began when I brought this information to his attention and he became a different person. He was clearly terrified.”
Carlson said Bongino eventually told him to take the matter up with Trump.
“I didn’t get it at first, but he was hysterical. And ultimately, after a long series of text exchanges, which I still have, and phone conversations, he said, look, take it up with Trump. He’s the one who shut down the investigation,” Carlson said. “And that was, I think, the first or second week of December. I think it was the beginning of the second week in December. I have it written down. But that was the moment and I realized, ‘Oh wow, there’s no good explanation for shutting down an investigation into your own attempted murder.’ This is not what we’ve been told it was.”
Carlson, once one of Trump’s most prominent media supporters, has become increasingly critical of the president, including over the Iran conflict, the Epstein files and foreign policy. He has also recently revisited the Butler assassination attempt on his own show, arguing that Trump changed after the shooting.
“He spent his campaign in the 2024 race arguing against regime change war, attacking people in favor of it — and then he launched it,” Carlson said. “And not just launched it, but became this kind of, enthusiastic tool of the government of Israel.”
Bongino responded Friday morning in an X post, denying Carlson’s claim and attacking his credibility.
“More receipts incoming on my show today that the nepo baby is lying again,” Bongino wrote. “He’s like Teddy Ruxpin, you put a coin in his back and he tells you a story.”
Bongino’s response sets up a public clash between two high-profile conservative media figures over one of the most scrutinized unresolved questions from the 2024 campaign: what investigators know about Crooks’ motive and whether the public has received the full record surrounding the Butler assassination attempt.
Carlson said he still has text exchanges and notes connected to the conversations he described. Bongino, meanwhile, has said he plans to produce “receipts” rebutting Carlson’s version of events.
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