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A second recording is even more disturbing. Crooks faces a sheet of target paper marked with blue circles, holding the same pistol while deliberately taking aim. His controlled, calculated posture exposes the depth of his fixation.
Owens told her audience the footage is a frightening window into Crooks’ obsession with weapons and assassination plots.
A Dark Digital Trail
Federal investigators have confirmed that Crooks’ fascination with violence extended far beyond his bedroom. The FBI discovered a July 6, 2024 search on his laptop asking, “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” — only a week before he opened fire on President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
His internet history reportedly contained even more gruesome searches, including “Deadliest Mass Shooting in World,” “Pulse nightclub police body camera,” “Fertilizer bomb,” and “How to make a Molotov cocktail.”
Owens said her team verified those details with FBI records.
Disturbing Online Comments
According to Owens, Crooks’ trail of hate stretched back years. In 2019, he allegedly left a YouTube comment advocating for chopping the heads off “Trump hating democrats.”
Yet despite this online history, former FBI Director Chris Wray admitted to Congress that Crooks was never flagged by federal authorities prior to the assassination attempt.
Investigators also say Crooks researched Ethan Crumbley, the Michigan school shooter who murdered four classmates in 2021, along with other mass attackers. He reportedly studied explosives, terror plots, and mass casualty events. A U.S. official told CNN last year that Crooks’ phone activity showed a disturbing level of preparation.
Shockingly, his final search on his encrypted Samsung device — just minutes before being taken out by a police sniper — was for pornography.
Portrait of a Would-Be Assassin
The FBI’s findings paint Crooks as a young man consumed by bloodlust, weapons, and destruction. That obsession culminated in his attempt to assassinate a former U.S. president in front of the world.
His plot failed, but it raises alarming questions: how could a man with such an obvious digital footprint escape the radar of federal law enforcement?
DOJ Celebrates Another Conviction
The Department of Justice used this week to highlight its successful conviction of another attempted Trump assassin, Ryan Routh.
“This verdict sends a clear message. An attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate is an attack on our Republic and on the rights of every citizen,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declared. “The Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue those who try to silence political voices, and no enemy, foreign or domestic, will ever silence the will of the American people. I want to thank and congratulate the trial team and our law enforcement partners for their outstanding work and dedication in bringing this case to justice.”
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FBI Director Kash Patel echoed that message, adding, “Ryan Routh’s attempted assassination of President Trump was a disgusting act — mere weeks before an election and only months after a separate assassination attempt came dangerously close to succeeding.”
Patel credited federal teams for moving swiftly, stating, “FBI teams worked quickly and diligently with local partners and the Department of Justice to demonstrate a clear fact pattern of Routh’s planning and intent, and we are grateful to see a quick resolution. The FBI will continue working aggressively to take violent offenders off American streets and protect public officials from threats of all nature.”
A Pattern of Political Violence
Two assassination attempts against President Trump in just a matter of months. Federal officials admit they missed glaring warning signs. Now Americans are left asking the question no one in Washington seems eager to answer: how many more violent extremists are still out there, preparing in silence, waiting for their moment?
