An unidentified donor paid to cremate Thomas Crooks, the man who tried to kill Donald Trump, just 10 days after the Butler rally attack, according to federal records turned over to the US Senate that still leave his motive unexplained.
The note sits at the end of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interview with Crooks' father, Matthew, among documents handed to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. A lawyer for the family told investigators that an anonymous donor covered the cremation. The records do not name the donor or explain the payment. Neither of Crooks' parents was working at the time, according to the files: his father was unemployed and later retired early, and his mother was on leave.
A Rushed Cremation and a Congressman's Objection
Crooks, 20, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper on 13 July 2024 after opening fire from a rooftop at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing Trump's ear, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, and wounding two others. His body was released to his family and cremated by 23 July, 10 days later.
Representative Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican on the bipartisan task force examining the attack, tried to view the body on 5 August 2024 and found it already gone. He called the early release an 'obstruction to any following investigative effort'. The FBI rejected the accusation as inaccurate and unfounded, saying it worked with the county coroner and local police.
The 'Bob Dole' Alias and a Trail of Gun Parts
The same records confirm how Crooks hid his purchases. His father said he ordered rifle parts, tools, and equipment to increase his weapon's capacity through Amazon under the name 'Bob Dole', the late Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee. Matthew Crooks said the alias began after his own bank account was hacked and hit with fraudulent gambling charges.
Investigators had already logged more than 25 firearms-related purchases from online vendors starting in spring 2023, followed by buys of chemical precursors used in explosive devices recovered after the shooting.
A Loner Obsessed With Privacy and Firearms
Crooks coached his parents on hiding their digital tracks, recommending virtual private networks and secure browsers he argued were harder to trace. He kept encrypted email accounts, and officials later identified at least 35 digital accounts tied to him, including foreign-based addresses in Germany and Belgium. The FBI found no foreign link to the attack.
His father described a son who was emotionally distant from birth, named no friends through school, and talked to himself in the months before the attack. He saw no sign that Crooks would act.
The Lone-Wolf Question Still Unanswered
More than two years on, the central question holds. The FBI maintains Crooks acted alone, with no foreign or domestic help, yet has never established why he climbed onto that roof. Director Kash Patel has said Crooks despised both parties and viewed Trump as the face of a system he hated.
Trump, briefed on the findings, blamed the previous administration's handling of the case in a post on Tuesday. The donor who paid to have his remains cremated remains unnamed, one more gap in a case never fully closed.
