EXCLUSIVE: FBI concludes Trump shooter Thomas Crooks acted alone after unprecedented global investigation

SOLE The FBI came to the conclusion that Butler Pennsylvania would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks acted alone after a massive band doggedly pursued interviews with thousands of foreign and domestic individuals as part of an unprecedented global scrutiny into the shooting of President Donald Trump the bureau described Fox News Digital as part of a lengthy behind-the-curtain rundown of the probe FBI Director Kash Patel FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and a senior official with direct involvement in the Butler Pennsylvania analysis sat down for an unprecedented interview with Fox News Digital for more than an hour Thursday afternoon at FBI Headquarters FBI 'STONEWALLED' HOUSE TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT RESEARCH CONGRESSMEN ALLEGEPatel narrated Fox News Digital that the scrutiny was a Day One priority for the bureau Dan and I have been on this since we got here eight months ago We not only had to maintain the chain of command to President Trump but we had to remind the world that President Trump was the victim one of the four casualties on that day Patel declared There are victims' rights rules that apply to him and they don t get erased because he is the president We fully briefed the president as a victim of this affair at the White House providing him with all of the details of our review and the president was satisfied with the results and where we left it he stated Patel Bongino and the senior official who has requested anonymity due to his sensitive work shared new details of the monthslong research in an effort to provide maximum transparency to the American people amid contemporary reports that have suggested several theories which Patel Bongino and the official debunked We have reviewed this occurrence over and over looked into every nugget We have spoken to the families the president there is no cover-up here Bongino communicated Fox News Digital There is no motive for it there is no reason for it Patel referenced former FBI Director Christopher Wray s testimony to Congress in as a expected reason for unfounded theories to surface My predecessor went to Congress and noted he didn t know if it was a bullet that hit President Trump in the head The whole world knew it was a bullet Patel reported Fox News Digital For the number one law enforcement officer to say that it causes a massive disbelief in the institution that Dan and I are now running But that is the difference between then and now he stated The development presently sits in a pending inactive status but the official called the probe one of the largest mobilization of FBI materials in history that frankly continued to this day If we get a credible lead we ll continue to investigate the official disclosed The director has been very clear about leaving no stone left unturned and that is what we are committed to On July Crooks age opened fire at Trump s campaign rally in Butler Pennsylvania The president was shot with the bullet piercing the upper part of his right ear The president ducked to the ground and was surrounded by Secret Utility agents who evacuated him from the scene Three spectators were hit by gunfire and one person a firefighter and father Corey Comperatore was killed The FBI took over the examination hours after the shooting and began reviewing it as an assassination attempt Four hundred and eighty-five FBI employees have been involved in specific way shape or form in this probe the official recounted Fox News Digital The FBI around the world has conducted more than interviews connected to this occurrence the official continued We ve reviewed tips that were submitted We ve served and executed more than search warrants and subpoenas In that we specifically analyzed electronic devices that were associated with Crooks and his family members from his home in Bethel Park Pennsylvania The official commented the FBI examined accounts linked to Crooks including social media bank and other online accounts The FBI has been able to access all of the accounts the official disclosed There has been reporting to inappropriately and incorrectly state that there was encryption that the FBI was not able to get into that is not true We have been able to get into every single account The official mentioned that Crooks maintained foreign-based email accounts from Germany and Belgium The FBI was able to fully access those accounts within days of the attack the official declared Additionally the FBI engaged with foreign partners who also provided all of the content of those email accounts We can say with confidence that there is no communication there are no emails that Crooks had that we have not been able to access the official disclosed The home was thoroughly swept Every device in the home was collected and accessed fully Patel revealed Reports say that we didn t get into certain devices That s false We got into all of the devices The FBI conducted a manual review of more than individual electronic files and engaged with a number of nations around the world to ensure that all leads were covered When there was a lead about an overseas connection the two instances where we became aware of the foreign accounts the FBI reached out to foreign governments the official explained Very rapidly they provided the full contents of the accounts the official mentioned adding that the FBI deployed such an extraordinary overseas effort that even people not in Crooks age range were interviewed and done fully and thoroughly There is no foreign connection in this circumstance the official stressed There is no individual that is outside U S borders or inside U S borders that had any role in directing him inspiring him or assisting him in any way and that includes foreign governments The official added There is no information no evidence anywhere in this scrutiny that shows there was any foreign individual or foreign regime or foreign organization tied to Thomas Crooks We would have cracked the biggest inquiry in human history a foreign-directed plot Bongino announced Why would we withhold that But we can only follow the facts and they are just not there Reports have surfaced questioning Crooks alleged relationship with Antifa-linked individual William Tepes The FBI described Fox News Digital that there was never any direct communication between Crooks and Tepes Crooks posted on YouTube Tepes is a Norwegian nordic resistance member He just responded to content Crooks posted Patel revealed pointing to a comment Tepes made on a -era video posted on the video-sharing platform by Crooks As for his online presence Bongino mentioned previous FBI leadership initially downplayed his digital footprint The degree of his digital footprint was not messaged correctly at all by prior leadership Bongino explained The official stated Fox News Digital that Crooks online activity largely took place in and when Crooks was just years-old nearly five years before the attack He called our Republicans and Democrats He went as far as saying in my opinion the only way to fight the ruling body is with terrorism-style attacks I won t try to get into his brain the official mentioned But there is a limited record of him making political statements and advocating for political violence in and The official detailed particular of Crooks online behavior leading up to the attack including on July when he used his email account to register to attend the Butler Pennsylvania rally on the Trump campaign website Crooks also searched how far was Oswald from Kennedy The official also mentioned Crooks searched for what the weather would be in Butler Pennsylvania on the day of the attack where the podium would be and looked up directions from his home to the Butler Farm Show grounds and directions from the grounds to the closest hospital But Crooks left no manifesto He had no seepage of any kind He didn t give any indication anywhere that he was going to do this or why he did this the official noted There are multiple instances in notable assassinations that they do want folks to know why they did it but we don t know that here because Thomas did not leave any of those artifacts The rage the anger I totally get it I m with you He is a friend of ours he was shot in the head on live television we want an explanation too Bongino mentioned Where is the manifesto The answer is it doesn t exist Reports have suggested Crooks had selected interest in the furry anthropomorphic public online But Patel explained Fox News Digital that evidence obtained through the FBI s inquiry revealed no evidence of involvement in that population He went on a website called Deviant com and that website contains pornographic material animated pornographic material related to the furry society a whole host of things Americans would never look at Patel announced noting FBI evidence that Crooks displayed an interest in animated female muscle-building erotica Crooks was on that website and looked at images related to women who work out a lot That was his interest and so we are sharing this with you to show that just because he was on a website that has a voluminous amount of terrible information on it there is no investigative fact to back up a connection between Thomas Crooks and a portion of the website that had the furry on it Patel announced questions are also being raised as to why the FBI did not stop the assassination attempt before it happened The FBI can only investigate based on a lawful predicate to open Patel reported Does the American community really want the FBI scouring social media and content everywhere without a lawful predicate and trampling over First Amendment rights Patel announced that if someone had called in a lead instantly there would be action But no one did that Patel announced No one People are asking why we didn t act on his posts on certain sites No one in law enforcement knew who he was No one referred him to law enforcement and we do not monitor every single Americans use of YouTube and Google and Twitter and Facebook Patel commented Because then people come back and say to us why are you on our First Amendment rights As for the weapon used to shoot the president Crooks used a rifle Crooks father controlled access to the gun vault and the gun The weapon was used to fire eight rounds in the vicinity of the president and the stage The official advised Fox News Digital that there were additional unfired rounds in the weapon and a number of unused magazines that were located in his conveyance on a ballistic vest The representatives all shot down any theories of a expected second shooter noting that the individual near the water tower around the site was a Pennsylvania State Police officer There were no phantom rounds Every single round was accounted for the official mentioned Bongino stressed that it is the FBI s conclusion that Crooks acted alone It is our conclusion and it is likely given politically-motivated assassination attempts in history Bongino explained These are historical incidents that have already happened Arthur Bremer Squeaky Fromme Sara Jane Moore John Hinkley those names should all ring a bell He added We re not saying Crooks didn t deal with anyone ever we are just saying that the people he dealt with had no role in inspiring motivating or directing this attack Meanwhile the FBI discovered an undetonated explosive device inside Crooks carriage The device had a receiver on it which would receive a message from a transmitter in order to detonate the official explained The receiver was positioned in the off position Had it been positioned in the on position and if it activated from the triggering device on the person our assessment is that it would have activated But the position was in the off position Patel explained Fox News Digital that he recreated what it would have looked like if the explosive device was in the on position We walked members of Congress through a visual of what would have happened Patel reported Because it seems so unlikely you would build a device and forget to turn it on but he did Bongino reported That s how it was revealed Was it just stupidity As for the crime scene in general Patel Bongino and the official explained that the FBI controlled the crime scene from July at midnight until July We do not hold the crime scene forever We have to give it back that is standard operating procedure Bongino explained Crooks body was removed from the roof by the Pennsylvania state coroner In coordination with State Police the FBI then cleaned the roof with water as we were going to release the scene We had onlookers and souvenir hunters the FBI is not going to turn over a blood-stained roof AGR was a functioning business the official explained Our standard operating procedure is to acquire services to clean the roof The decision was made to do that but only after all evidence on the roof was collected including the firearm shell casings biological samples left behind photos blood The official announced an autopsy of Crooks was conducted the next day and an FBI and Pennsylvania State Trooper sat in on the autopsy Before the body was published to the family which is protocol in every crime situation ever the FBI collected DNA fingernails hair samples and blood from Crooks that remains in FBI evidence to this day the official noted After those collections were made our examination of the body was done and completed At that point it was turned over to the family for burial and for plans they had The official added They chose to cremate The FBI did not make the decision to cremate the body Bongino declared The family did It was their son The FBI had nothing to do with this decision at all Meanwhile Patel addressed criticisms from members of Congress who claim he has not turned over documents pertaining to the probe Congress is accusing us of not turning over all of this stuff but all of this stuff doesn t exist It is an empty narrative they re firing into a vacuum Patel disclosed The very limited information we have not turned over is respective to casualties rights There isn t selected trove of documents that we haven t sent over there Patel disclosed the FBI has fully debriefed the lawmakers We ve even had members of Congress come to Quantico in our lab facility there and walk them through the exact investigative efforts the video and audio recordings the repercussions of the explosion that did not occur that day and how that would have impacted the people that were attending the rally and so they have been given a full inside-view of what we did on those days Patel revealed We gave them all of the material we are legally able to give them He added They have seen video recordings We ve literally shown them and delivered them the audio and video recordings the totality of what we possess They have that They have our investigative information There is nothing more for us to turn over We don t have anything else in our holdings The FBI narrated Fox News Digital that the bureau has turned in more than pages to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Permanent Select Committee on investigations Those documents include FBI interviews or s with U S Secret Utility state and local police state and local lab reports including ballistics crime scene photos videos and more The total pages produced to the Senate is more than pages Come put out documents to Congress during his tenure Wray in his seven or eight years put out Patel mentioned We in eight months have put out over documents to Congress to include this Crossfire Hurricane Arctic Frost and more But there are investigations ongoing surrounding that so we are working with Congress not only for constitutional oversight and adjustment in provision but we re working on the accountability piece and to do that we have to run our investigations And we re not done Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a Friday announcement to Fox News Digital Under Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino s leadership the FBI is doing tremendous work to investigate the horrific attempted assassination of President Trump that resulted in the heartbreaking murder of Corey Comperatore We will help prevent what happened in Butler from ever happening again The sit-down interview with Fox News Digital lasted for more than an hour as Patel Bongino and the senior official sought to provide as much information as manageable on the probe and to debunk the latest population criticism they have faced We don t blame people for asking questions Bongino disclosed The president the candidate at the time was shot in the head on live TV Our position is please ask away Bongino added We are very confident in the outcomes of this research We have pulled on every threat We are absolutely confident and if information surfaces please right away get it over to us for instant action I would ask the population what motivation would Kash Patel and Dan Bongino possibly have to hide from their personal friend not just their boss the president information about a crime where he was the victim Bongino sought I don t understand what the motivation would be But Bongino quoted a line from the movie A Meager Good Men No one is interested in guilt or innocence they re interested in someone to blame Bongino quoted The population is pissed off We get it We sympathize with you It couldn t have just been this guy it couldn t have just been this guy It is There is no reason I would tell you otherwise As to why people keep coming back to this on social media the reality is multiple people make a lot of money on social media pushing conspiracy theories for clicks Patel announced That is a fact As for Trump he notified Fox News' Brian Kilmeade Friday that he has confidence in Kash a lot of confidence and the DOJ and they are giving me reports and their reports are seeming to balance out so I have confidence in these people I wasn't confident with Christopher Wray but this group it is a different group Trump disclosed It's Kash as opposed to Christopher Wray and I have confidence in Kash