A first responder on that Butler roof watched a SWAT officer reach into the dead shooter's pocket.
It took Judicial Watch two years of federal lawsuits to get her account into the public record.
What the EOD team found urgent enough to order an evacuation is still buried in 75,000 hidden FBI pages.
Judicial Watch Just Forced the FBI to Release the Thomas Crooks Roof Account
On July 13, 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed a rooftop at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, fired eight shots, grazed the president's ear, and killed firefighter Corey Comperatore before a Secret Service sniper put him down.
And Judicial Watch has been suing the FBI ever since to find out what really happened up there.
A Beaver County Emergency Services Unit medic climbed a black collapsible ladder onto the roof of the American Glass Research building in Butler, Pennsylvania, at 6:23 p.m.
Two minutes later, she pronounced Crooks dead – no pulse on the carotid.
She told the FBI what happened next.
A Washington County SWAT officer searched Crooks' right pocket and pulled out a gray remote device – numerical push buttons, an antenna – along with a cell phone.
Explosive ordnance disposal showed up on the roof to examine it.
Then came word that a police canine had "hit" on the building below.
Everyone on the roof was ordered to evacuate.
Crooks' body stayed up there.
The medic didn't leave the scene until after 1:00 a.m.
None of this was released voluntarily.
Judicial Watch pried it out of the FBI through a federal lawsuit filed in July 2025 – a full year after the assassination attempt – after the bureau had simply ignored the original FOIA request filed the day after the shooting.
The 48 pages released this week are heavily redacted.
The device existed – that much made the cut. EOD considered it serious enough to examine on the roof while ordering everyone to clear out.
What the device was designed to trigger, whether it functioned, and what EOD concluded are all blacked out.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said: "The American people deserve full transparency about Thomas Crooks, his contacts, and why key details about this case remain hidden nearly a year later."
https://twitter.com/JudicialWatch/status/2075399859512000793
The FBI Is Sitting on 75000 Pages About the Butler Assassination Attempt
The remote detonator wasn't a surprise to investigators.
The FBI's own August 2024 briefings confirmed agents recovered improvised explosive devices in Crooks' vehicle and bomb-making materials in his bedroom.
Those same briefings confirmed Crooks had searched for information on remote detonators, detonating cord, and blasting caps – searches that went back to September 2019.
He ordered explosive fuel online in January 2024 and followed up by email when the shipment was late.
He was building toward something larger than a rifle shot from a rooftop.
The threat didn't end at Crooks' body.
None of that changes the math on what the FBI is still holding: approximately 75,000 pages of documents related to the Butler shooting.
The bureau is reviewing a few hundred per month.
At that pace, full disclosure would take decades.
Every document release that has reached the public since July 13, 2024 – without exception – came through Judicial Watch litigation.
An April 2026 release confirmed law enforcement had broadcast radio warnings about an "unknown male acting suspiciously" before Crooks fired his first shot.
Those warnings never reached the agents protecting Trump.
A separate April 2026 release confirmed Crooks got into a fight near the rally grounds and was heard making hateful comments directed at Trump in the minutes before he climbed that roof.
The bureau closed its investigation in November 2025, declared Crooks a lone wolf, and moved on.
The documents keep telling a different story.
What the FBI's Closed Thomas Crooks Investigation Still Cannot Answer
The FBIl ran one of the most extensive investigations ever conducted into an attack on a U.S. political figure – 485 agents, more than 1,000 interviews.
The conclusion was clean: Crooks acted alone.
A 20-year-old with no clear motive built multiple functional explosive devices and loaded two into his car with remote transmitters. He flew a drone over the rally site for nearly 12 minutes before climbing a roof within rifle range of the president of the United States.
He had a working detonator in his pocket.
The bombs were in the car.
If he had gotten away from that roof alive, he would have had everything he needed to detonate them.
The FBI has 75,000 pages about a shooter who left no traceable bomb-making searches – and somehow built functional explosive devices anyway.
It has 75,000 pages about a car packed with remote-triggered bombs that sat in that parking lot while thousands of Trump supporters walked past it.
The case is closed.
The questions aren't.
Sources:
- Tom Fitton, "FBI Records Reveal Witness Account that SWAT Officer Recovered 'Remote Device' from Butler Shooter's Pocket," Judicial Watch, July 8, 2026.
- "Remarks to Media on the Butler, Pennsylvania, Assassination Attempt," Federal Bureau of Investigation, August 28, 2024.
- Brooke Singman, "EXCLUSIVE: FBI Concludes Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks Acted Alone After Unprecedented Global Investigation," Fox News, November 21, 2025.
