Trump, without evidence, claims 2024 assassination try was political plot - USA Today

President Donald Trump alleged on Tuesday, Sept. 15, that a "Democrat Plot" was behind the failed assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, making claims that conflict with previous findings from FBI officials in his own administration that the gunman acted alone.

In a Truth Social post published more than two years after the July 2024 attack, Trump accused the Biden administration's FBI of mishandling evidence and suggested that newly uncovered information points to a broader political conspiracy. The allegations stand in contrast to conclusions announced by FBI Director Kash Patel and former Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who said investigators found no evidence that gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, worked with, communicated with, or was directed by anyone else.

"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. By the time I got into Office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone," Trump wrote.

The post comes more than two years after Crooks opened fire on Trump while the then-presidential candidate was speaking at the Butler Farm Show Grounds in Pennsylvania.

A bullet grazed Trump's right ear during the attack. Rally attendee Corey Comperatore was killed, and two others were injured. Crooks was shot and killed by a U.S. Secret Service sniper moments after opening fire.

Later in Tuesday's post, Trump alleged, without providing proof, that newly discovered information supports the existence of a broader conspiracy.

"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 wrote.

Trump's post came only hours before Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the FBI had discovered new information on Crooks.

"It is new information ⁠about the shooter and about his background, about his history and ​that stuff that we didn't know before," Blanche told reporters during a White House news conference without elaborating.

Blanche's announcement came on the heels of reporting by the New York Post, which detailed documents shared with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, as part of his inquiry into the assassination attempt.

According to the Post, the newly discovered documents included FBI interviews with Crooks' father, which suggested that Crooks had "an obsession" with guns and a non-existent relationship with his father.

“When Thomas was born he did not scream and he was always quiet from that point on,” Crooks' father told the FBI, according to the Post.

Trump's allegations differ from conclusions previously announced by FBI officials in his administration.

In a November 2025 interview with Fox News Digital, Patel and Bongino said investigators concluded that Crooks acted alone, and found no evidence that he was directed by or linked to a foreign individual, government, or organization.

"We fully briefed the president, as a victim of this case, at the White House, providing him with all of the details of our investigation, and the president was satisfied with the results and where we left it," Patel said.

According to the interview, investigators examined 13 electronic devices linked to Crooks and his family, along with social media, banking and email accounts. Officials said they accessed all of Crooks' accounts, including some based in Germany and Belgium, and manually reviewed more than 500,000 electronic files.

"We have reviewed this case over and over, looked into every nugget. We have spoken to the families, the president. There is no cover-up here," Bongino told Fox News Digital.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatoday.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.