Trump Says ‘Democrat Plot’ to Blame Over Inept Assassination Attempt Probe - Newsweek

President Donald Trump has said that a "Democrat Plot" is to blame for the "botched" federal investigation into the 2024 assassination attempt at a campaign rally that saw him shot in the ear, two others critically wounded, and one dead.

"Everybody knows the Crooked Joe Biden FBI didn’t do what they should have with respect to the Lunatic who shot me in Butler, PA," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. "By the time I got into Office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone. New info was just found! Why wasn’t it seen long ago? This was all a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed. Dirty Cop Christopher Wray should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt, and certainly for the things he said."

Trump's allegation comes as a new trove of documents related to Thomas Matthew Crooks' assassination attempt against him was released this week. Many questions remain unanswered since the rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Crooks shot at Trump with an assault rifle from a rooftop while the then-presidential candidate delivered remarks.

Crooks killed one attendee and severely wounded two others while also hitting Trump's ear with a bullet. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service agent, and his motive remains unknown, even as the FBI ended its investigation in 2025.

Wray, who was mentioned in Trump's recent post, was the FBI director at the time.

Newsweek reached out to the FBI via email for comment on Tuesday.

When reached for comment on Tuesday, the White House referred Newsweek to comments made by Attorney General Todd Blanche, in which Blanche said that the new information was found by the FBI and provided to the Senate in response to inquiries.

"It is new information about the shooter and about his background, about his history, and that's stuff that we didn't know before. So, that's the new information," Blanche said. “As far as the president's frustration with the FBI, I was there with him. I lived it. I mean, you have a situation where it's not really clear what the leadership of the FBI were doing in the weeks and months ahead of the attempted assassination to protect President Trump."

“That's the same organization that was simultaneously trying to put him in prison until he dies," he continued. "So, his frustration and concern about what the former director was doing is something that is not new. He’s said that for a very long time. I was with him during the investigation and trying—you know, before he was elected president, trying to understand what happened and why."

Blanche added that FBI Director Kash Patel "has undertaken a Herculean effort to go through all the documents and understand what was missed, if anything, and to provide anything that hadn't come forward to the American people to the American people."

"And that's what he's done," Blanche said.

The documents were released to Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who is investigating the assassination attempt in an effort to learn how Crooks was able to bypass security and fire a gun numerous times despite numerous security warnings. They provide a further glimpse into Crooks' life, his actions leading up to the shooting, and events that occurred after the assassination attempt.

One such revelation was that Crooks made online purchases under the alias "Bob Dole" in an attempt to conceal his true identity before the shooting, the New York Post reported. The packages, which came from Amazon and other online retailers, included parts and tools for his assault rifle and were delivered to Crooks' parents' house.

The late Bob Dole was a Republican U.S. senator who ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1996 against Bill Clinton. The reason for Crooks' use of the name remains unknown.

The documents also revealed that an anonymous donor covered Crooks' cremation expenses after the assassination attempt. The donation came in only days after the attack, the New York Post reported. A note included within the documents that appeared to come from a lawyer for the family, according to the Post, said Crooks' father was retired, and the family was unable to pay for the funeral and cremation expenses.

While Trump has said that Wray "should pay the price" for the way the FBI investigated the assassination attempt, it remains unclear if a new investigation will be launched into Wray's actions during the investigation. Wray described the incident as "an attack on our democracy" and offered condolences to Trump and the other victims; the president later criticized the FBI's handling of the investigation and disputed some of the bureau's public statements about the shooting.

The Secret Service has faced criticism for its actions at the time and has since implemented new security measures, such as drones and mobile command posts.

Despite the surge of new information, questions about Crooks' motive and how the assassination attempt was able to unfold remain unanswered. It is unclear whether any additional records could help fill those gaps.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant and Sam Wilson.