US

FBI Perjury? Trump Shooter’s Alleged Social Media Profile Contradicts FBI Testimony

01/08/2024
47 4 minutes read
Share

The CEO of Gab, a social media site and Twitter alternative, is disputing claims from the FBI that would-be Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks expressed “antisemitic” and “anti immigration” views on the platform. Gab CEO Andrew Torba is instead reporting that Crooks shared pro-immigration and anti-Trump content on the platform.

On Tuesday, Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate testified before Congress alongside acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe. During the hearing, Abbate explained to Senators that the FBI has discovered two different social media accounts that they believe may belong to Crooks. According to the FBI, one account shared “antisemitic” topics and thoughts, though a second account on Gab shared “differing points of view.”

“While the investigative team is still working to verify this account to determine if it did in fact belong to the shooter, we believe it important to share and note it today, particularly given the general absence of other information to date from social media and other sources of information that reflect on the shooter’s potential motive and mindset,” Abbate told lawmakers.

Torba — who had previously reported that the FBI had alerted the company about an account possibly owned by Crooks and asked the company to preserve data relating to it — responded to Abbate’s testimony in an X post on Tuesday.

“This is not consistent with Gab’s understanding of the shooter’s motives based on an Emergency Disclosure Request (‘EDR’) we received from the FBI last week for the Gab account ‘EpicMicrowave’ which, based on the content of that EDR, the FBI appeared to think belonged to Thomas Crooks,” Torba wrote in response to Abbate’s testimony.

Torba then posted a portion of the FBI’s request, with some sections left redacted out of respect for the sensitivity of the investigation.

In one post from the account that is believed to have been made by Crooks, he appeared to defend President Biden’s immigration policies in response to a pro-Trump poster.

“First of all Biden executive orders don’t incentivize human trafficking as human traffickers aren’t interested in citizenships, likewise the majority of illegal immigrants are not criminals and in fact some studies (such as the one linked below) show lower rates of crime committed by these individuals,” reads one post from the account. It then linked to a study from PNAS.

In another post, the account allegedly operated by Crooks suggested that COVID-19 lockdowns were an effective policy.

“Thats funny because the first order mandates a reuniting of any families separated at the border, the 2nd and 3rd orders a review of trumps immigration policies and other previous policies. However his order doesn’t actually open borders or reduce the authority of border patrol, or anything that would substantially reduce BP effectiveness,” reads another post in defense of President Biden’s decision to axe a number of Trump’s border policies.

“The story is this: the account for which data was requested was, UNEQUIVOCALLY, pro-Biden and in particular pro-Biden’s immigration policy,” Torba said.

“To the best of Gab’s knowledge, as of 2021, Crooks was a pro-lockdown, pro-immigration, left-wing Joe Biden supporter.”

The bombshell report caught the attention of X owner Elon Musk, who said the FBI deputy director committed perjury if the account does indeed belong to Crooks. “It sure looks like the FBI leadership engaged in perjury,” Musk wrote in an X post.

To date, the FBI has reported that it has been unable to determine a motive as to why Crooks attempted to kill the former president. While Crooks was registered to vote as a Republican, he did donate to the progressive fundraising arm ActBlue on the day of President Biden’s inauguration.

Outside the alleged Gab account, the deceased gunman’s social media footprint was practically nonexistent. He did have an account on Discord — a messaging application popular with gamers — though the account has been deleted by the platform.

One former classmate described Crooks as a “Trump hater” who would frequently argue over political matters.

“Thomas was a quiet kid unless there was something that he was passionate about. Politics being one of them, he just did not like politicians, especially with the choices that we’ve had. He did not like our politicians,” said Vincent Taormina, a former classmate of Crooks, adding that this became especially apparent in 2016.

“So I brought up the fact that I’m Hispanic and you know I’m for Trump, and he said, ‘well you’re Hispanic so shouldn’t you hate Trump?’ And I was like, ‘no he’s great, I mean like he’s a great president.’ And he’s you know, he called me stupid, or insinuated that as if he’s like, well, that’s kind of stupid.”

“So like, once again, if he was passionate about something, he would just talk, talk, talk and acted like he knew everything, especially politics related. And he was just, he was, he would say it in a type of way. And meanwhile, it’s like, dude, we’re in the same classes. You know what I mean? We’re talking about the same stuff here,” the former classmate continued.


Share
Tags
01/08/2024
47 4 minutes read

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button