A Pennsylvania-based private investigator has alleged that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump, was not working alone.
In an interview with the New York Post, private investigator Doug Hagmann revealed that he and six of his colleagues have been investigating the case since soon after the attempted assassination occurred at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on July 13.
According to Hagmann, the group has interviewed more than 100 people and has become convinced that Crooks was not acting alone — asserting that a “criminal network” had been behind the attempted assassination that led to Trump taking a bullet to the ear, and there are other members of this network that may be planning to finish what Crooks started.
“We don’t think he acted alone. This took a lot of coordination,” Hagmann explained. “In my view, Crooks was handled by more than one individual and he was used for this [assassination attempt.] And I wouldn’t preclude the possibility that there were people at the rally itself helping him.”
The private investigator went on to accuse the FBI of withholding information about the assassination attempt — stating that security personnel and FBI agents have repeatedly shown him the door as he tried to conduct his investigation.
“One can assist in an operation like this by omission or standing down. There are people still out there involved in this case that need to be brought to justice,” Hagmann said.
The private investigator and his team assert that location data from electronic devices — which were geolocated in the same location as Crooks multiple times leading up to the shooting — does not add up. For example, at least one of the electronic devices that was confirmed by geolocation data to be with Crooks on the day of the shooting is still pinging at a local high school, according to Hagmann.
🔥🔥🔥Huge! A private investigator says that a criminal enterprise may have been involved in the assassination attempt on Trump. And that they still want to kill Trump! And also, the FBI is suppressing info on Crooks!
Sources told The Post the FBI has obstructed efforts to… pic.twitter.com/t01SSG7A3y
— Bad Kitty Unleashed 🦁💪🏻 (@pepesgrandma) February 27, 2025
This aligns with previous comments from former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in September, who asserted that Department of Justice (DOJ) officials told him that there were “five assassination teams” targeting Trump.
Meanwhile, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), who was a member of the bipartisan task force created to investigate the Trump assassination attempt, insists that Crooks acted alone. However, he does agree with one of Hagmann’s assertions — the FBI has been more of a hindrance than a help to anyone trying to investigate the incident.
Higgins believes that there was no “criminal network” conspiring to kill Trump, and instead asserts that drugs played a role in Crooks’ actions.
“Something happened to make him go crazy and that’s why I think it might have been pharmaceuticals. He performed an attempted assassination and he was committed all the way through – to death. He was not acting erratic but he was a wild lunatic at the same time, incredibly calculating and incredibly smart,” Higgins told the New York Post.
