New investigative reports now claim Thomas Matthew Crooks left a sprawling digital trail that contradicts the neat little story federal officials gave the public. Journalists and independent researchers say multiple accounts tied to Crooks appeared on platforms from DeviantArt to PayPal, with at least some profiles using they/them pronouns and posting in corners of the internet tied to the “furry” community.
That revelation should make every American uneasy because the FBI and other officials originally told Congress and the country that Crooks had little or no online footprint and no clear ideological motive. Major news outlets reported at the time that investigators had found no obvious social-media trail explaining why a 20-year-old would attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate.
Either the Bureau was shockingly incompetent, or worse, it quietly left out highly relevant digital evidence when it briefed lawmakers and voters. Conservative watchdogs and investigative reporters say the congressional account released in December 2024 did not include these newly surfaced details, and that omission demands answers from leadership at the FBI and Justice Department.
The uncovered material is not just eccentricity; it allegedly includes violent rhetoric, admiration for mass killers, and explicit posts that suggest a fixation on political violence. Sources claim Crooks used aliases — including a PayPal account under the name of a former senior FBI agent — and maintained dozens of accounts that paint a more radicalized picture than officials have admitted. Those are not the actions of a harmless loner; they are the red flags investigators are supposed to find and report.
We shouldn’t pretend this is only about one deranged individual. The broader trend of kids radicalizing in fringe corners of the web — mixing sexualized subcultures, grievance ideology, and violent fantasies — is a national-security problem, and platforms plus federal agencies are failing to stop it. The new reporting lays out a trail of accounts across YouTube, Discord, DeviantArt, Gab and more, which raises the obvious question: how did so many alerts go unheeded or unexplained?
Congress and the American people deserve a full accounting: produce the digital logs, explain what was known when, and say who made the call to exclude these findings from official reports. Local heroes and federal protectors deserve transparency too — we cannot rebuild trust in law enforcement or the intelligence community while they dodge uncomfortable answers.
Americans of goodwill — of every stripe — should insist on the truth. If the Bureau missed critical warnings, fix the culture and staffing that allowed that failure; if the Bureau hid information, those responsible must be held to account. Our nation’s safety and the integrity of our political process depend on exactly that kind of plainspoken transparency.
