The FBI “stonewalled” the House investigation into the Thomas Crooks’ attempted assassination of President Trump, two congressmen involved in the probe told The Post.
On Monday, The Post reported on violent social media posts that are believed to be tied to Crooks. The online activity included numerous endorsements of political violence, and a severe turn from being a hardcore advocate for Trump to coming within a few millimeters of killing him.
The FBI never shared those files with the Congressional investigation, said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX).
“I think that there’s so many unanswered questions about it,” Kelly said. “They don’t want people to handle the truth.”
“We all know it wasn’t done, it wasn’t complete and the reason for that is they can’t handle the truth,” he said of how the FBI treated the Congressional investigation. “They don’t want people to handle the truth.”
That was just one of several roadblocks the congressional investigators faced — ranging from Crooks’ body being quickly cremated to his blood being washed from the roof he shot from, Kelly said.
The House report was released in December, five months after Crooks nearly killed Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I don’t think any of us came out of that feeling, ‘You know what we really got the answers we were looking for,’” Kelly said of the committee’s meetings with the FBI.
“We were stymied so much by the feds on what we could look at, what we couldn’t look at,” said Kelly — who is from Butler and was at the rally the day Trump was shot.
“We knew we were going to get stonewalled on a lot of stuff.”
Fallon called for a new probe in light of the new info — saying he doesn’t recall the FBI ever sharing the newly revealed details of Crooks’ online footprint when he sat on the Congressional investigation committee.
“I don’t think it would do any harm at all,” Fallon said, echoing Kelly’s complaints about the FBI being cagey with Congress.
“You can’t investigate these things enough,” he added.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Kelly and Fallon were among 13 members of the House who led the bi-partisan investigation into the shooting, which concluded that Crooks had little notable digital footprint and left behind little indication that he might be a threat to anyone.
But the new trove of social media posts paint a different picture.
Crooks’ activity online and on social media ranged from researching how to produce homemade bombs and how to shoot an AR-15 assault rifle “as fast as possible,” calling for the deaths of Jews and politicians, to advocating violence as the only way to bring about political change.
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Thanks for signing up!
“IMO the only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building and set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them,” he wrote in an Aug. 5, 2020, post.
Crooks’ online accounts also had videos of him practicing shooting stances with what appeared to be a real handgun in his bedroom.
But after reports of that activity emerged, FBI Director Kash Patel doubled down and insisted in an X post that Crooks’ digital footprint was unremarkable.
Many aren’t buying it, however, and are demanding the assassination attempt be re-examined.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who told The Post that she and Trump both want answers.
“Those questions are definitely deserving of answers and I understand why the public wants those answers, and I believe the president does too,” Leavitt told Miranda Devine’s “Pod Force One.”
