Overview
- Conservative outlets, citing a New York Post investigation and Tucker Carlson’s team, report that Thomas Crooks used at least 17 online accounts tied by email and usernames across YouTube, DeviantArt, Snapchat, Discord, Quora and other platforms.
- Profiles allegedly linked to Crooks on DeviantArt used they/them pronouns and featured interests in furry content and “muscle mommy” imagery under the usernames epicmicrowave and theepicmicrowave.
- Recovered comments attributed to Crooks describe an ideological shift from pro‑Trump in 2019 to sharply anti‑Trump in early 2020 and include calls for “terrorism style attacks,” political assassinations and research on bomb‑making and rapid AR‑15 fire.
- Reporting says Crooks interacted online with a user called “Willy_Tepes,” whom journalists link to the Nordic Resistance Movement, and who appeared to encourage violent rhetoric, though these connections have not been confirmed by the FBI.
- The bureau’s public stance, reiterated in statements quoted by Kash Patel, is that Crooks planned and carried out the July 13, 2024 Butler attack alone with limited interactions, prompting renewed calls for transparency about what investigators found and disclosed.