The individual who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, had an interest in “furries,” according to reports.
Thomas Crooks allegedly tried to take Trump’s life July 13, 2024, as a bullet struck his ear. Crooks allegedly killed Corey Comperatore, 50, and seriously injured two others who were at the Butler rally.
There are still more questions than answers, despite the back and forth on Crooks’ ideology. He seemed to be pro-Trump before taking a dramatic switch in the other direction, as the New York Post detailed:
Thanks to an enterprising source who uncovered Crooks’ hidden digital footprint, we can see that Abbate [former FBI Deputy Director] misled Congress by omission, because he left out an entire section of Crooks’ online interactions from January to August 2020 when he did an ideological backflip and went from rabidly pro-Trump to rabidly anti-Trump and then went dark, never seeming to post again.
The source uncovered Crooks’ various accounts on platforms including YouTube, Snapchat, Discord, Google Play, Quizlet, Quora, and more and concluded that this individual “was not simply some unknowable lone actor” but someone who clearly left a “digital trail of violent threats, extremist ideology and admiration for mass violence.”
Crooks’ anti-Trump rhetoric took off in 2020, deeming Trump’s followers sheep and Trump himself racist. In one post in August, Crooks wrote, “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.”
The Post also reached out to Rod Swanson, “former senior FBI agent who was the chief of investigations for the state of Nevada during the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting,” as his name was used as an alias on one of the platforms for Crooks.
“If they investigated that kid there’s a record of it and there’s an assessment that some leader made that this was not a threat or it rose to a level and they did something else,” he said.
Beyond that, it seems Crooks had a fetish with furries, per the Post:
He described himself with the pronouns “they/them” on the platform DeviantArt, which is one of the biggest online hubs for “furry” art and the “furry” community. (A furry is someone who has an interest in anthropomorphized animal characters, often as a sexual fetish.)
Two accounts linked to Crooks’ primary email were found on DeviantArt, under usernames “epicmicrowave” and “theepicmicrowave.” The account suggests he had an obsession with scantily clad cartoon characters sporting muscle-bound male bodies and female heads.
Notably, this coincides with reports describing the alleged assassin who murdered 31-year-old Charlie Kirk – Tyler Robinson. He, too, appeared to have an obsession with disturbing furry subculture, playing pornographic video games and watching content from a user known for “furry porn,” who has also depicted pedophilia.
As Breitbart News detailed:
The Daily Mail uncovered accounts belonging to Tyler Robinson, who was in a relationship with his transgender roommate, revealing his involvement in furry porn. This included playing a game called “Furry Shades of Gay,” which is reportedly about “love, queer relationships, hot gay sex and slapstick humor.” The outlet notes that Robinson played the game so much that he achieved a prize called an “uncommon sticker” of a cat-human dressed a French maid.
His friends confirmed he often used the username craftin247 on such platforms. Interestingly, that account name “recently watched” content on FurAffinity.com by a creator called RedRusker, who is known for gay furry porn. That includes depictions of underage characters having sex.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is among those who continue to point out that the assassination attempt on Trump last year was the result of “completely preventable failures which nearly cost President Trump his life.”
All the while, threats to Trump continue. FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed last month that the Secret Service discovered a hunting stand with a view of Trump as he disembarked Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida.
