The White House is openly questioning the FBI’s handling of the Thomas Crooks investigation after a bombshell report revealed the would-be assassin left behind years of violent online rhetoric that federal investigators never disclosed and may never have fully examined.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the New York Post that Americans are right to demand an explanation for what drove Crooks to attempt to assassinate President Trump at a July 2024 campaign rally, and why federal authorities failed to identify or share obvious red flags ahead of the shooting.

“Those questions are definitely deserving of answers,” Leavitt said in a candid interview with Miranda Devine on Pod Force One. “It’s a good question, and it’s one I’d like to see the answer to — and I think all Americans would.”

Her comments came just hours after The Post published a devastating investigative report that uncovered a stunning collection of Crooks’ digital postings — including explicit endorsements of political assassination, fantasies about terrorism, and erratic ideological swings — all under his name and tied to accounts he operated for years.

For more than a year, the FBI maintained that Crooks, 20, was largely “a ghost online,” leaving behind no significant digital footprint that could shed light on his motives. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress that Crooks had never appeared on the bureau’s radar and that investigators uncovered no ideological trail.

But The Post’s investigation contradicts that narrative entirely.

Using Crooks’ phone number and publicly available internet-scraping tools, reporters uncovered years of inflammatory posts on YouTube, Discord, and DeviantArt — across 17 separate accounts — dating back to when he was just 15.

Among the most disturbing was an August 2020 post in which Crooks openly encouraged political terrorism:

“The only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks… track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them.”

Four years later, Crooks climbed onto the roof of a building in Butler, Pa., and opened fire at then-presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump — killing firefighter Corey Comperatore and critically wounding two more Trump supporters before Secret Service counter-snipers shot him dead.

The FBI never mentioned this 2020 post, nor the dozens of others like it, in any briefing, report, or congressional testimony.

Devine’s report also revealed that Crooks’ online persona shifted drastically over the years: In 2019, he appeared to be a staunch Trump supporter, posting, “I hope a quick painful death to all the deplorable immigrants and anti-Trump congresswoman.”

Months later: “MURDER THE DEMOCRATS.”

By 2020, he reversed course, turning his rage toward Trump and embracing violence as the only path to political change.

Crooks also used they/them pronouns and posted graphic, violent artwork — another detail never surfaced by the FBI during its public accounting of his behavior.

The omission raises alarming questions:Did the FBI truly fail to identify Crooks’ online activity, or did it choose not to disclose it? Did the Bureau turn over all evidence to Congress? Was Crooks acting alone, or did he have foreign or domestic help? Why were blatant threats of political violence not flagged?

The FBI declined to comment Monday.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he previously attempted to obtain the FBI’s full file on Crooks but was repeatedly “stonewalled” — ultimately forcing him to subpoena the Bureau in July.

Even that subpoenaed material, Johnson said, lacked many of the online posts newly uncovered by The Post.

Meanwhile, a congressional report on the assassination attempt likewise made no mention of any of Crooks’ social-media activity across those accounts, despite the fact that much of the content was easily accessible.

According to Leavitt, the president himself is unsatisfied with the answers he has received so far.

“I know that he has inquired with the Secret Service and the FBI,” she said. “Earlier in the administration he asked them, ‘I want an updated briefing on what happened. Do we know any more than when I was briefed immediately after Butler?’”

Whether Trump is satisfied with the responses he received, Leavitt said, “is only a question he can answer.”

Her remarks suggest — for the first time publicly — that Trump himself believes the official account of the shooting leaves important questions unresolved.

FBI Director Kash Patel previously denied that Crooks had a substantial online footprint, asserting the opposite even as The Post prepared to publish Devine’s findings.

Leavitt made clear that the White House is not ready to let the matter go.

“The American people deserve answers about what really drove Thomas Crooks to pull that trigger,” she said. “And so does the president.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)