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FBI accessed Trump rally shooter's phone within days of shooting | Fact check
The claim: Investigators haven’t accessed Trump rally gunman’s phone
A Jan. 4 Threads post (direct link, archived link) claims authorities have hit a roadblock in the investigation of the gunman who injured President-elect Donald Trump and killed another man at a July 13, 2024, campaign rally.
The post includes an image of an X post and a photo of the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, on the day of the shooting.
“Remember, they still haven’t cracked this kid’s phone,” reads text in the X post. “Yet they are falling all over themselves to tell you all about the Vegas cybertruck bomber and giving a random influencer an all access pass to the home of the New Orleans attacker.”
The Threads post was shared more than 50 times in five days, and similar posts spread on Instagram and Facebook. The original X post was shared more than 15,000 times
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Our rating: False
Investigators sent the gunman’s phone to an FBI lab and gained access to the device within two days of the shooting.
FBI accessed gunman’s electronics days after rally
Trump sustained a graze wound to his right ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire from a nearby roof. One rally attendee was killed and two others were injured, officials said at the time. A Secret Service sniper shot and killed the gunman, whom the Secret Service later identified as Crooks.
The Threads post compared the rally shooting investigation to those involving two separate New Year’s Day attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas. The “random influencer” mentioned in the post appears to be a reference to a reporter who shared an on-camera tour of the New Orleans assailant’s home.
But the post is wrong about Crooks' phone. The FBI gained access to it within two days of the shooting, according to an FBI news briefing at the time.
The gunman used encrypted email accounts, but the level of encryption “was no more sophisticated than any standard, widely used, internet-based email service,” FBI agent Kevin Rojek said during a separate August 2024 news conference.
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Officials sent a rifle, the gunman’s cellphone and other evidence to an FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, "for processing and exploitation,” Rojek said on a call with media the day after the shooting.
An analysis of the gunman’s online searches between 2019 and 2024 provided “extensive insight" into his mindset and "specific research he conducted in preparation for the attack,” Rojek said.
The shooter conducted multiple searches about explosive devices in that time and more than 60 searches related to either President Joe Biden or Trump within the 30 days before the attack, Rojek said.
USA TODAY contacted the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. USA TODAY was unable to contact the user who posted the claim on X.
PolitiFact and Lead Stories also checked this claim.
Our fact-check sources
FBI, July 29, 2024, Investigative Updates on the Butler, Pennsylvania, Assassination Attempt
FBI, August 28, 2024, Remarks to Media on the Butler, Pennsylvania, Assassination Attempt
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, FBI isn't locked out of Trump rally shooter's phone | Fact check