Judicial Watch has obtained 249 pages of FBI records through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
They include text messages from Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who wounded President Donald Trump and killed retired firefighter Corey Comperatore.
The FBI announced the delivery Friday. Judicial Watch went to court after the bureau failed to answer its July 2024 records request.
The Justice Department has said the full investigative file totals roughly 75,000 pages.
Crooks was 20 on July 13, 2024, when he fired multiple shots from a rooftop at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was then a candidate. Law enforcement officers killed Crooks at the scene.
Investigators later pulled data from his Samsung phone. A July 18, 2024, “Samsung Messaging Review,” summarized in the new records, identifies certain communications the FBI marked as pertinent to the investigation.
One of those exchanges took place February 9, 2023. The FBI dated the conversation from February 8 to February 10, 2023, and listed the other party as an “unknown contact.”
That contact wrote, “Woah that looks cool,” in reply to a message from Crooks. The FBI redacted Crooks’ message entirely.
The contact then asked, “Did you 3D print the parts?” Several hours later, Crooks answered, “Yes, except for the fan blades.”
Reporting on the documents states that the two went on to discuss coursework at separate colleges.
The records do not name the parts. They do not say whether the parts belonged to a printer, a firearm or another object.
The FBI flagged a second conversation from Christmas Day 2022. The bureau dated that thread from December 12 to December 26, 2022, and did not identify the other person.
An incoming text read, “Thanks for the gifts.” Crooks wrote back, “Your welcome. Thanks as well.” The records do not describe the gifts.
A third item is a chat thread documented in a July 19, 2024, FBI electronic communication. The thread ran from May 21, 2023, to January 3, 2024. The FBI redacted the name of the recipient.
The records list Crooks’ outgoing messages in that thread as: “Hello,” “Hello red,” “Hello red,” “Hdudhdbdbbd,” “7888ejdj,” “Yolo,” “Ddodjjf,” “890,” “Hdjd,” “Djdj,” “red,” “Yup red,” “Hello,” “Jhhhuuh,” “Hhdj,” “Jjjjjjjjjjjj,” “Hello red,” and “Red red …”
The FBI redacted every incoming message in the thread. The released pages provide no context for the exchange.
The new pages sit alongside earlier investigative material that the FBI previously provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley.
In that material, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, described his son’s use of a 3D printer.
“Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19,” the elder Crooks told investigators.
Matthew Crooks said he fired one round from the printed firearm and stopped because he feared the frame would explode. He also told investigators he did not allow his son to use it.
The October 2026 release covers further items agents examined. Investigators extracted 40 images and eight flight logs from a drone Crooks used.
The drone took the images between February 6 and February 27, 2024, in the Pittsburgh area. One logged flight took place in Butler on July 13, 2024.
The pages also contain DHL notifications about a shipment from Hong Kong.
Text messages made up of campaign fundraising appeals from then-Senate candidate Raphael Warnock appear as well.
The documents do not explain why the FBI classified the cited messages as pertinent. The identities of the contacts remain redacted.
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