Thomas Matthew Crooks spent a lot of time at a nearby gun club as marksmanship became his deep obsession before he attempted to kill former President Donald Trump.
The would-be killer visited the range 43 times and went to target practice three to six times a month for a year before the murder plot, according to startling new records obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
The Clairton Sportsmen’s Club provided Grassley with records that reveal the astonishing amount of time Crooks spent practicing his marksmanship before attempting to kill Trump.
Records obtained by DailyMail.com indicate he spent 80 percent of his time at the range practicing shooting with long guns rather than pistols.
And the obsession even overshadowed her holidays, as she spent Christmas Day, Valentine’s Day and Halloween at the club in Clairton, Pennsylvania.
Thomas Matthew Crooks joined a shooting range less than a year before shooting Donald Trump at a Butler rally last month and visited the club 43 times throughout 2024.
A membership renewal card reveals that Crooks described himself as a “dietary aide” at a nursing home.
The 20-year-old used his father’s AR-style weapon to open fire from a rooftop near a Trump voting booth in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
A bullet grazed the former president’s right ear and missed his brain by millimeters. One rallygoer was killed and two others were seriously injured before the Secret Service neutralized Crooks.
New information provided to Grassley reveals that Crooks’ last visit to the shooting range was at 2:45 p.m. on Friday, July 12, the day before the shooting.
A membership card to the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club reveals that Crooks was a “dietary assistant”
Crooks’ bullet grazed Trump’s right ear at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, killing one rally-goer and seriously wounding two others before he was shot and killed by Secret Service personnel.
FBI Director Christopher Wray shared shocking new details with Congress last month, including that Crooks had visited a shooting range the day before the rally.
Wray could not tell lawmakers whether Crooks took the gun to the rooftop, just 400 feet from the stage, or hid it before going up.
He also said Crooks and his family owned a combined total of 14 guns and that the AR weapon he used to shoot Trump was legally purchased by his father and sold to him in October 2023.
Not much is yet known about Crooks or his motive for attacking Trump.
He had little to no social media presence, was registered as a Republican but donated in 2021 to a progressive group backing President Joe Biden.
The FBI recently revealed that it found a social media account possibly linked to Crooks that could shed light on the motive behind his attempted murder.
In late July, Congress summoned the new acting head of the Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, and the FBI’s number two, Deputy Director Paul Abbate, to testify about the shooting.
Abbate said the FBI discovered at least one social media account on an anonymous platform believed to be associated with Crooks. That account posted more than 700 comments between 2019 and 2020, he added.
“Some of these comments… appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant themes in order to promote political violence,” Abbate said.
Abbate revealed that the FBI discovered at least one social media account on an anonymous platform believed to be associated with Crooks.
Not much is yet known about Crooks or his motive for attacking Trump.
But he would not confirm the name of the social media platform until his agents could prove with 100% certainty that Crooks made the posts.
Abbate said the posts were “extreme in nature,” but the FBI is still determining whether the account actually belonged to Crooks.
He also revealed that the agency is still working to identify and infiltrate Crooks’ various “encrypted” accounts that could shed light on his motive.
That infuriated Senator Lindsey Graham, who wanted more information about his motive.
‘So you’re telling me that the guy who shot the president, the former president, eight times, has apps that we can’t access, but if you could access them, they could reveal relevant information?’
“That’s right, Senator,” the officials responded.
This worried Graham, who later pushed for better methods to be developed to infiltrate encrypted accounts.
“We need a solution that provides legal access,” officials said, implying that current options only provide illegal access to Crooks’ suspected accounts.
