Federal records obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley reveal that an anonymous donor covered the cremation costs for the 20-year-old who nearly killed President Donald Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally in July 2024. The gunman’s remains were destroyed less than two weeks after the assassination attempt, raising serious questions about who wanted the evidence gone and why.
The documents, first reported by The New York Post on Tuesday, show that Crooks’ father, Matthew, told FBI investigators that the family couldn’t afford funeral arrangements on their own. Matthew was “retired” at the time, according to one document, while another listed him as “unemployed.” His wife was on leave from work. Yet somehow, the cremation got paid for.
Representative Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican, had previously flagged the suspicious timeline. When he attempted to examine Crooks’ body on August 5, 2024, he discovered the FBI had already released it for cremation.
“My effort to examine Crooks’ body on Monday, August 5, caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact… the FBI released the body for cremation 10 days after,” Higgins wrote in a letter to the congressional task force investigating security failures surrounding the shooting.
The newly released documents paint a troubling picture of the young shooter. Matthew Crooks told federal investigators his son “never identified anyone as a friend throughout middle school and high school.” The father described Thomas as a straight-A student who scored 1400 on his first SAT attempt but feared he wouldn’t get into college. He noticed a change in his son’s behavior between freshman and sophomore year. Perhaps most disturbing: federal documents revealed Thomas had been ordering suspicious packages under the name “Bob Dole,” timing his pickups to collect them before his father came home.
The attack itself remains seared into the nation’s memory. On July 13, 2024, Trump was leading an outdoor campaign rally when a bullet clipped his ear. Secret Service agents swarmed the stage as more rounds flew into the crowd behind him. A sniper killed Crooks on the scene.
President Trump responded to the document release on Truth Social Tuesday, blasting the Biden administration’s handling of the investigation. “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,” Trump wrote. “By the time I got into Office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone. New info was just found!”
The identity of the anonymous cremation donor remains unknown. So do the answers to the questions that donor’s generosity may have permanently buried.
