Conflicting accounts relating to social media belonging to former President Donald Trump‘s shooter, Thomas Crooks, have emerged this week.
On Tuesday, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the attempt against Trump’s life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate also appeared before the Committee on Tuesday.
On July 13, Crooks, 20, was identified as the individual who shot at the former president at a campaign rally while he was on stage, injuring his ear in an assassination attempt. Crooks was later killed by the Secret Service while one rally attendee also died and two others were in critical condition.
During the hearing, Abbate explained to Senators that the FBI discovered two different social media accounts that they believe may belong to Crooks. According to Abbate, one account shared “antisemitic” topics and thoughts, but a second account on the platform Gab, shared “differing points of view.”
“While the investigative team is still working to verify this account to determine if it did in fact belong to the shooter, we believe it important to share and note it today, particularly given the general absence of other information to date from social media and other sources of information that reflect on the shooter’s potential motive and mindset,” Abbate said during the hearing, while speaking about the social media accounts.
However, in a post to X, formerly Twitter on Tuesday, Gab CEO Andrew Torba said, “The FBI is now claiming that the Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks had an unspecified ‘social media account’ in 2019/2020 (when he was 14/15 years old) that posted ‘anti-immigrant and anti-semitic’ content.”
“This is not consistent with Gab’s understanding of the shooter’s motives based on an Emergency Disclosure Request (“EDR”) we received from the FBI last week for the Gab account ‘EpicMicrowave’ which, based on the content of that EDR, the FBI appeared to think belonged to Thomas Crooks,” Torba said. “The story is this: the account for which data was requested was, UNEQUIVOCALLY, pro-Biden and in particular pro-Biden’s immigration policy.”
“To the best of Gab’s knowledge, as of 2021, Crooks was a pro-lockdown, pro-immigration, left-wing Joe Biden supporter,” Torba added in his post.
Rowe recently took over as acting Secret Service Director after Kimberly Cheatle resigned from the role. Cheatle faced widespread calls to step down following the shooting, with many criticizing her for the shooting.
The FBI directed Newsweek to Abbate’s testimony after reaching out via email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
