Newly disclosed FBI records identify Snapchat, Gmail, Mailfence and Amazon accounts linked to Thomas Crooks as a former federal agent says recoverable Snapchat data could provide investigators with additional evidence about the 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Newly released FBI records provided to the Senate identify multiple online accounts connected to Thomas Crooks, including a Snapchat profile that a retired FBI supervisory special agent says could contain a “treasure trove” of recoverable information about the man who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The records show investigators located a Snapchat account using the name “tom_crooks19,” along with Gmail, Amazon and encrypted Mailfence accounts associated with Crooks. Details from the federal records were first reported by the New York Post.
Crooks opened fire during Trump’s July 13, 2024, campaign rally, killing one person and seriously injuring two others before he was killed. The newly disclosed records provide additional information about the digital footprint investigators examined following the attack.
Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason Pack said information associated with the Snapchat account may remain accessible despite the platform’s disappearing-message features. In a Fox News interview about the account, Pack said users can mistakenly assume that material disappears permanently after being viewed.
“When you snap and that picture goes away that everything is gone, and that’s not true. When I’ve served search warrants, there’s been a treasure trove of information that has come back,” Pack said. “It’s not like some people think when you’ve snapped, and then it goes away, it’s totally gone. That’s not entirely the case.”
Pack said some information from Crooks’ Snapchat activity might not have been recoverable, but he said investigators could still obtain a “good amount of information in there.”
The FBI records also identify an Amazon account connected to Crooks and show that he maintained an account with Mailfence, an encrypted email service. According to the documents, Crooks accessed the Mailfence account multiple times between April 15 and July 8, 2024, five days before the Butler rally shooting. He also maintained a Gmail account.
Pack said Crooks’ efforts elsewhere to conceal aspects of his activity could indicate that he also exercised caution in managing his social media presence and other online activity.
“What you do see is a pattern of trying to hide things and using aliases. And, so, if he’s taking that much care to publicly not be seen picking up deliveries and those types of things, you have to assume he’s probably taken just as much diligence with his social media and with his digital footprint,” Pack said.
Pack noted that Snapchat is not fully encrypted, potentially limiting how much Crooks could conceal through the service while also leaving some information available for investigators to obtain.
The disclosure of the accounts comes as FBI Director Kash Patel provided lawmakers with an update Tuesday on the bureau’s examination of Crooks’ electronic activity.
Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee that investigators analyzed data from approximately 27 devices and searched for possible connections between Crooks and people in the United States or abroad. He said the bureau found no evidence that Crooks was communicating with anyone apart from his parents.
“We found no evidence that that individual was literally even speaking to any other human being other than his parents, who he resided with,” Patel testified.
The newly released records provide additional details about the online accounts Crooks maintained before the July 2024 attack, while Patel’s testimony indicates the FBI’s examination of the available device data has not established that another person was involved with Crooks in carrying out the assassination attempt.
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