The FBI moved quickly on Thursday to challenge Tucker Carlson after the former Fox News host raised new questions about the bureau’s transparency surrounding the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump by Thomas Crooks.
Carlson had stated bluntly on social media that “The FBI told us Thomas Crooks tried to kill Donald Trump last summer but somehow had no online footprint. The FBI lied, and we can prove it because we have his posts.” His post—hinting at new revelations to come—immediately went viral.
But the FBI’s newly created “Rapid Response” team pushed back, insisting, “This FBI has never said Thomas Crooks had no online footprint. Ever.”
In fact, during testimony in July 2024, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate acknowledged that investigators had identified “a social media account which is believed to be associated with the shooter.” Abbate explained that “there were over 700 comments posted from this account,” though he also noted the bureau was still working to verify it belonged to Crooks. Beyond that, Abbate conceded there remained a “general absence of other information… from social media and other sources” shedding light on the would-be assassin’s motive.
That lack of disclosure has left many Americans—especially conservatives—asking a simple question: If Crooks had an online history, why hasn’t the FBI released it? The agency has offered little public detail, even as skepticism grows.
Carlson, who has frequently criticized the modern FBI for political bias and lack of accountability, continues to call out what he views as institutional evasiveness—even as the bureau is now led by Trump-aligned appointees, including Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
In an unusual move for a federal law-enforcement agency, the FBI launched its Rapid Response social-media account the same day as its rebuttal to Carlson. The bureau proclaimed that “the days of bad-faith attacks and fake-news narratives are over,” promising a new era of direct public engagement.
According to the FBI’s statement, “Under Director Patel, Deputy Director Bongino and Co-Deputy Bailey, your FBI is in a new era – one where we communicate more than any FBI ever before and more directly with the American people about the important work we’re doing.” The agency said it is confronting an “avalanche of lies, smears, and falsehoods,” and vowed to push back more aggressively than previous leadership: “No FBI has had the temerity to put truth as we have… We changed that on day 1.”
While some online users applauded the bureau’s assertive posture, many others echoed Carlson’s concerns and demanded real transparency—starting with the public release of Crooks’s verified digital trail.
