FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate The FBI has linked Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump, to a soc...
The FBI has linked Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump, to a social media account purportedly filled with anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
This revelation was made during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, where U.S. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate provided updates on the ongoing investigation.
Despite initial reports that investigators had found no threatening posts on Crooks’ social media accounts, Deputy Director Abbate claimed new evidence had surfaced.
“Something just very recently uncovered that I want to share is a social media account which is believed to be associated with this shooter,” Abbate said.
“Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect anti semitic and anti immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature,” he added.
“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.
“These are the facts, in part, that the investigation has revealed to date. While the shooter is dead, our work is very much ongoing and urgent,” he concluded.
WATCH:
— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) July 30, 2024
Torba responded to the FBI’s allegations by releasing what he described as evidence contradicting the agency’s narrative. He claimed that his team discovered posts attributed to Crooks on Gab that painted a different picture of his political affiliations. According to Torba, these posts indicated that Crooks was pro-Biden and supportive of his immigration policies.
It can be recalled that on Wednesday, he announced that his team had discovered evidence suggesting Crooks may have operated an account on Gab under the username “EpicMicrowave.”
Andrew Torba reported on Gab:
Gab learned that Thomas Crooks, the deranged Joe Biden supporter who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump, may have had an account on our platform. We are unable to confirm that the account in question actually belonged to him.
The account was last active on the site in 2021. As far as we are aware, the account did not use the site to send any direct messages. He posted on the site nine (9) times total.
While the account made very few posts on the site, the majority of them were in support of President Biden. A number of posts in particular expressed support for President Biden’s COVID lockdowns, border policies and executive orders.
We have saved the account data pending receipt of a search warrant.
Approximately 30 minutes ago, Gab learned that Thomas Crooks, the deranged Joe Biden supporter who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump, may have had an account on our platform. We are unable to confirm that the account in question actually belonged to him.
The… pic.twitter.com/BcJrZJ4Yhk
— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) July 24, 2024
Now, Torba asserts that the FBI’s claims were inconsistent with Gab’s understanding of Crooks’ motives.
He wrote:
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.
Many, particularly regime media reporters, have doubted Gab’s claims that this request existed. Normally we don’t confirm the existence or content of law enforcement communications. In this instance we had to make an exception due to the overwhelming public interest in disclosure and transparency.
As a courtesy to law enforcement, we are not going to post the entire request. This is the first page of that request.
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’s response included a partial release of the EDR, which the FBI states, “FBI investigative efforts identified several E-Mails, Telephones, and One Possible GAB account associated with Crooks. This Emergency Disclosure Request is being submitted to identify any co-conspirators.”
BREAKING: 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… pic.twitter.com/UPPJSAkPqp
— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) July 30, 2024
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