Claims were wrong: The FBI was able to unlock Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone

Six months after the July 13 assassination attempt of President-elect Donald Trump, false claims about the investigation continue to circulate online. One recent social media post claimed investigators are still locked out of the suspect’s cellphone.

"Remember, they still haven't cracked this kid's phone," a Jan. 4 Instagram photo claimed. "Yet they are falling over themselves to tell you all about the Vegas cybertruck bomber," the post added, referring to the Jan. 1 explosion outside the Trump International hotel in Las Vegas.

The post featured a photo of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old man who shot at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One rally attendee was killed and another man was injured; one bullet clipped Trump’s ear.

We found claims similar to the Instagram post on Threads and X. The Instagram and Threads posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

The FBI said two days after the assassination attempt that investigators had unlocked Crooks’ phone. "FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices," the agency said July 15. The Washington Post reported investigators breached the phone within 40 minutes of the shooting by using a tool from Cellebrite, an Israel-based technology company.

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Later that month, investigators said they had tapped into other electronic devices including laptops and memory cards to analyze their contents.

"We have searched and continue to search multiple cell phones related to the subject, as well as other electronics, including laptop computers, a router, and memory cards," FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said July 29. "The FBI is looking at the email accounts, gaming accounts, messaging platforms, social media accounts, as well as online search engines in an attempt to determine a possible motive and whether the subject acted alone or worked with co-conspirators."

Rojek said Crooks’ devices revealed online searches of political leaders, including President Joe Biden and Trump, and of mass shootings.

The FBI acknowledged it had struggled to get into foreign-based encrypted accounts on Crooks’ devices, but the agency ultimately succeeded there, too. 

"We faced some delays, but we worked closely with our foreign partners and obtained as much information as we could about those accounts," FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert R. Wells said.

We rate the claim that investigators still haven’t cracked Crooks’ phone False.