Surprise: Trump's Would-Be Assassin in Butler, PA Was Interested in Gay Furry Porn

How very unexpected.

Breitbart:

The individual who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, had an interest in "furries," according to reports.

Thomas Crooks allegedly tried to take Trump's life July 13, 2024, as a bullet struck his ear. Crooks allegedly killed Corey Comperatore, 50, and seriously injured two others who were at the Butler rally.

There are still more questions than answers, despite the back and forth on Crooks' ideology. He seemed to be pro-Trump before taking a dramatic switch in the other direction, as the New York Post detailed:

Thanks to an enterprising source who uncovered Crooks' hidden digital footprint, we can see that Abbate [former FBI Deputy Director] misled Congress by omission, because he left out an entire section of Crooks' online interactions from January to August 2020 when he did an ideological backflip and went from rabidly pro-Trump to rabidly anti-Trump and then went dark, never seeming to post again.

The source uncovered Crooks' various accounts on platforms including YouTube, Snapchat, Discord, Google Play, Quizlet, Quora, and more and concluded that this individual "was not simply some unknowable lone actor" but someone who clearly left a "digital trail of violent threats, extremist ideology and admiration for mass violence."

Crooks' anti-Trump rhetoric took off in 2020, deeming Trump's followers sheep and Trump himself racist. In one post in August, Crooks wrote, "IMO the only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building and set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them."

...

Beyond that, it seems Crooks had a fetish with furries, per the Post:

He described himself with the pronouns "they/them" on the platform DeviantArt, which is one of the biggest online hubs for "furry" art and the "furry" community. (A furry is someone who has an interest in anthropomorphized animal characters, often as a sexual fetish.)

Two accounts linked to Crooks' primary email were found on DeviantArt, under usernames "epicmicrowave" and "theepicmicrowave." The account suggests he had an obsession with scantily clad cartoon characters sporting muscle-bound male bodies and female heads.

Notably, this coincides with reports describing the alleged assassin who murdered 31-year-old Charlie Kirk -- Tyler Robinson. He, too, appeared to have an obsession with disturbing furry subculture, playing pornographic video games and watching content from a user known for "furry porn," who has also depicted pedophilia.

That report relies on Miranda Divine of the NY Post.

Then-FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress after the July 13, 2024, attack that the bureau had found nothing in Crooks' online history that pointed to a motive or political ideology.

A week later, Wray's deputy Paul Abbate told Congress that comments posted on one of Crooks' social media accounts "appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature."

Then-FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress after the July 13, 2024, attack that the bureau had found nothing in Crooks' online history that pointed to a motive or political ideology.

Thanks to an enterprising source who uncovered Crooks' hidden digital footprint, we can see that Abbate misled Congress by omission, because he left out an entire section of Crooks' online interactions from January to August 2020 when he did an ideological backflip and went from rabidly pro-Trump to rabidly anti-Trump and then went dark, never seeming to post again.

Among the 17 accounts uncovered by our source were ones on YouTube, Snapchat, Venmo, Zelle, GroupMe, Discord, Google Play, Quizlet, Chess.com and Quora.

The online interactions from when Crooks was ages 15 to 17 give us a better understanding of his evolution into an assassin, and invite more questions about what -- or who -- reversed his ideology.

"The danger Crooks posed was visible for years in public online spaces," says the source. "His radicalization, violent rhetoric and obsession with political violence were all documented under his real name. The threat wasn't hidden."

The official narrative claimed he acted alone and without a clear motive, ideology or digital footprint.

Yet the source found reams of information that shows Crooks "was not simply some unknowable lone actor ... He left a digital trail of violent threats, extremist ideology and admiration for mass violence. He spoke openly of political assassination, posted under his real name and was even flagged by other users who mentioned law enforcement in their replies. Despite this, his account remained active for more than five years -- and was only removed the day after the shooting.

"None of this online activity was referenced in the final congressional report released in December 2024, making this even more troubling," the source said.

...

Crooks' trajectory from pro- to anti-Trump is evident. He referred to Trump as "the literal definition of Patriotism" in a comment at 1:17 a.m. July 20, 2019.

He also issued several targeted threats against the Democratic congressional representatives in "the Squad."

"I hope a quick painful death to all the deplorable immigrants and anti-trump congresswoman who don't deserve anything this country [sic] has given them," he wrote at 8:18 a.m. July 20, 2019.

"MURDER THE DEMOCRATS," he wrote in all caps on Dec. 12, 2019.

But in early 2020, Crooks' online behavior flipped 180 degrees and he became very critical of Trump, Fox News and Republican complaints about mail-in voting.

The first time he criticized Trump was on Jan. 23, 2020, when he commented on a video of law professor Jonathan Turley talking about Trump's first impeachment.

"Keep in mind the only reason we may know about any of this is because of Trump's stupidity," Crooks wrote.

He started describing Trump supporters as a cult: "How can you people call others sheep, but you are do [too] brainwashed to realize how dumb you are," he wrote on Feb. 26, 2020. "I mean literally you guys sound like a cult at times."

The same day he described Trump as "racist."

...

On Aug. 5, 2020, Crooks wrote: "IMO the only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building and set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them.

"Any sort of head-to-head fight is suicide and even ambush/surprise attacks likely aren't going to end well. A large portion of the war will also be propaganda/information wars -- both sides will want people to join them, and a big deciding factor in wars is often which side has more popular support for them," he wrote.

One of the screennames this gay furry porn addict used was "Rod Swanson," the name of the lead FBI investigator in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. (About which people continue to have questions.)

Swanson was contacted for the story. He is retired and has no idea who this gay furry killer is. But he does say that the FBI would have been aware of his violent rhetoric.

When told of Crooks' online threats, he said there was no way the FBI would not be aware of the teenager.

"No matter how ridiculous the allegation, no matter if it's COVID or not, somebody is going to knock on somebody's door," Swanson said. "If they investigated that kid there's a record of it and there's an assessment that some leader made that this was not a threat or it rose to a level and they did something else."

He also said that "if the FBI had that information [about his name on the PayPal account], I can't even imagine they would not have reached out to me right away."

...

One of the people Crooks interacted with online was "Willy Tepes," a member of Norwegian neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement, which has since been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department.

Tepes encouraged violence and Crooks' extremism, using a Maoist phrase, "Political power comes from the barrel of a gun," which Crooks repeated several times.

"People who ask you to contact them when they just as easily could contact you, are Feds. This is how they avoid entrapment. Both American and Russian intelligence does this. I have chatted to both," he claimed.

Shortly after his interactions with Tepes, Crooks disappeared offline.

Did his brush with the Norwegian and his own violent rhetoric win him a visit from the FBI or the Secret Service?

Former Deputy Director Abbate told Congress that the killer's politics included "antisemitism" and "anti-immigrant" views, leaning but failed to mention his sharp turn to the left or his interest in gay furry pornography. The criminal Christopher Wray insisted upon this narrative.

If the FBI just doesn't want to name any ideological motive if there is ambiguity about it, why did Abbate claim that Crooks only offered views associated with the "extreme" right?

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posted by Ace at 02:41 PM

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