The FBI spent two years telling America the Thomas Crooks investigation was routine.
Now they're using a special exemption to keep his records sealed.
What they just refused to release tells you more than what they did.
The Thomas Crooks Sealed Records the FBI Refused to Release
Judicial Watch sued the FBI for Thomas Crooks’ records under the Freedom of Information Act and forced a fourth batch of documents out of the bureau.
52 pages were released. Roughly 45,000 remain.
Buried inside the legal filings was something that matters far more than anything in those 52 pages.
Some records are sealed by court order – almost certainly tied to the DOJ grand jury investigation into Crooks's motive and potential co-conspirators.
A separate category of records was withheld under FOIA exemption b7D.
That exemption exists for one purpose only: protecting the identities of confidential informants.
The Supreme Court ruled in U.S. Department of Justice v. Landano that sources are confidential when they furnish information with the understanding that the agency would not divulge it except as necessary for law enforcement purposes.
Someone talked to the FBI about Thomas Crooks under a promise of protection – and the FBI is still honoring that promise two years after he died.
What the FBI Admitted About the Butler Shooting Informant
One informant is already on the record: an overseas FBI source who told the bureau Iran was involved in the assassination attempt.
The FBI called that claim unsubstantiated and never pursued it publicly.
But b7D doesn't get cited for a single foreign contact the bureau already dismissed.
The exemption specifically protects identities when their exposure would compromise ongoing investigations or deter future cooperation.
Someone connected to Thomas Crooks is still being protected.
Kash Patel Said There Was Nothing Left to Hide
In November, FBI Director Kash Patel briefed Fox News Digital with the full scope of the investigation: 485 agents, more than 1,000 interviews, 35 online accounts examined, 13 devices seized, 500,000 digital files reviewed.
His conclusion: Crooks acted alone. Motive unknown.
Patel said directly: "They have seen video recordings. We've literally shown them and delivered them the audio and video recordings – the totality of what we possess. They have that."
That statement and the b7D exemption cannot both be true at the same time.
If the FBI turned over the totality of what it possesses to Congress, why are informant-protected records still being withheld from a separate FOIA request?
Either Patel was wrong about "the totality" – or the informant records exist in a category deliberately kept outside congressional oversight.
Neither answer is acceptable.
The FBI Is Sitting on 45000 Thomas Crooks Records
The FBI holds approximately 45,000 records related to Thomas Crooks and the Butler assassination attempt.
They have released roughly 50 documents per month since January.
At that pace, the full file lands sometime in the 2040s.
This is the same bureau that ran Operation Arctic Frost against Trump with unlimited speed and unlimited personnel.
When it comes to the man who nearly killed him, the FBI suddenly operates at the speed of a broken fax machine.
Judicial Watch forced every document that has come out. Without the lawsuit filed in July 2025, you'd have zero pages, zero investigative reports, and zero knowledge that Crooks made hateful comments about Trump to rally attendees minutes before the shooting – information the FBI sat on for two years.
Someone Knows Why He Was There
The FBI's own opening communication launching the Crooks investigation stated its purpose clearly: determine the subject's motivation and identify any co-conspirators.
No witnesses were ever called to the grand jury.
The FBI closed the investigation in November with "motive unknown" – the same answer they had on day one.
The bureau ran the largest investigation in its history into a man who nearly killed a sitting president. 13 seized devices, 500,000 digital files reviewed, foreign email accounts cracked open in Germany and Belgium, over 1,000 interviews conducted across the globe.
And after all of it, they still can't tell you why Thomas Crooks climbed that roof.
Now you have informant protections on a separate set of documents, a sealed court file, and a 45,000-record archive being released at roughly 600 documents per year.
Courts have held that b7D protections don't expire with the passage of time – or even with the death of the person being investigated.
That means whoever talked to the FBI about Crooks is still considered valuable enough to protect.
Corey Comperatore went to that rally in Butler to see his president.
He was killed by a bullet that law enforcement had spotted the shooter carrying thirty minutes before he opened fire.
Two years later, the FBI director who promised full transparency is still shielding the informant records from public view.
Kash Patel owes Corey Comperatore's family an explanation.
The b7D filing proves he hasn't given them one yet.
Sources:
- Ken Silva, "Some FBI Records about Thomas Crooks are Still Sealed," Headline USA, May 8, 2026.
- Judicial Watch, "FBI Records Reveal Altercation at Trump Rally Site before Shooting," Judicial Watch, April 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Exclusive: FBI Concludes Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks Acted Alone After Unprecedented Global Investigation," Fox News, November 21, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Justice, FOIA Guide – Exemption 7(D), DOJ OIP.
- Judicial Watch, "Judicial Watch Lawsuit Forces Release of Redacted FBI Records on Butler Trump Shooting," February 2026.
