Trump Thrashes Chris Wray Over Destroyed Files as New Details Emerge on the Butler Attempt on His Life

Thomas Crooks tried to kill Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.

New records just surfaced showing someone anonymously paid for the shooter's cremation.

Trump says that discovery led him to a much darker accusation about what Christopher Wray's FBI did with the evidence.

Trump Says the Files Were Missing, Altered or Gone By Inauguration Day

Trump posted the accusation on Truth Social on Tuesday morning.

He said that "by the time I got into Office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone."

He is talking about records from the investigation into the man who put a bullet through his own ear on a stage in Pennsylvania.

Trump did not stop at "incompetence."

He called it a "Democrat Plot" to take him out of the 2024 race.

Then he turned on the man who ran the FBI when the shooting happened.

"Dirty Cop Christopher Wray should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt, and certainly for the things he said," Trump wrote.

Wray resigned in December 2024 rather than get fired once Trump took office.

He has not publicly answered the accusation.

Trump has not released documents proving the files were destroyed, and Blanche has not confirmed it either.

This is Trump's account of the case file, not a finalized government finding.

But conservatives who have watched this investigation for two years already know why they believe him.

The New Details That Set Trump Off

The trigger for Tuesday's outburst was new information about the shooter himself.

Investigators disclosed that Crooks used the alias "Bob Dole" to order gun parts shipped to his house.

They also confirmed an anonymous donor quietly paid to have his body cremated.

Nobody has explained who that donor was or why they wanted Crooks turned to ash before investigators finished asking questions.

Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed the new details at a White House briefing on Tuesday.

He confirmed the FBI has new background material on Crooks that was not previously known.

Asked about Trump's broader claim, Blanche said it is "not really clear" what FBI leadership was doing to protect the sitting president before he was nearly killed.

That is the Attorney General, on camera, unable to say the FBI did its job.

FBI Director Kash Patel says investigators found no evidence Crooks communicated with anyone besides his parents.

That finding kills the wilder theories.

It does nothing to explain who lost the paper trail Trump says he inherited.

The FBI Fought Congress On This Case Long Before Trump's Post

This is not the first time Republicans have accused the FBI of slow-walking the Butler investigation.

Senator Ron Johnson spent a full year asking the FBI for basic records after the shooting.

Security footage, ballistics reports, drone analysis, and Crooks' communications all sat unanswered.

By July 2025, Johnson had run out of patience.

He issued a subpoena, giving the FBI an August 1 deadline to hand the material over.

"I had expected the FBI to be more forthcoming with the public and provide my office with the records we have been seeking for months," Johnson said at the time.

A sitting United States senator should never have to subpoena the FBI to learn how a president nearly died on live television.

That subpoena came under Kash Patel's FBI, months after Wray was already gone.

Which means the missing pieces Trump is describing were not a one-day discovery.

They were a slow, mounting pattern that Congress had already been fighting to crack open for a year.

What Happens Now Depends On Whether Anyone Can Prove It

Missing federal records tied to a presidential assassination attempt are not a paperwork problem.

They are the kind of thing special counsels and inspectors general get appointed over.

If Trump is right and files were altered or destroyed on Wray's watch, that is potential obstruction, not sloppy filing.

Chris Wray ran the bureau that failed to stop a bullet from grazing a former president's head, then allegedly failed to preserve the evidence explaining how it happened.

Congress already has the muscle memory for this fight.

Johnson subpoenaed this exact case once and got results only after forcing the issue.

Expect the same pressure now, aimed at what Wray's FBI did with the paper trail between July 2024 and January 2025.

Until Trump or the Justice Department produces documents showing exactly what was altered, this stays an accusation with a lot of circumstantial company.

But an accusation from the man who was shot at, aimed at the agency that investigated his own attempted murder, is not nothing.

Sources:

• Cristina Laila, "BREAKING: Trump Goes Off on Chris Wray, Says Butler Assassination Attempt Files Were Destroyed, Altered or Missing by the Time He Got Into Office," The Gateway Pundit, September 15, 2026.
• Jordan Conradson, "Todd Blanche Says It's Not Clear What Biden FBI Did to Protect Trump Before Assassination Attempt After Trump Reveals Chris Wray Destroyed Files," The Gateway Pundit, September 15, 2026.
• WLT Report Staff, "Todd Blanche Says FBI Found New Butler Information After Trump Claims Wray-Era Files Were Altered," WLT Report, September 15, 2026.
• Washington Examiner Staff, "Kash Patel Says No Evidence Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks Spoke to Anyone but His Parents," Washington Examiner, September 2026.
• Ron Johnson, "Chairman Johnson Subpoenas FBI for Records on the July 13, 2024 Trump Assassination Attempt," Office of Senator Ron Johnson, July 2025.