Judicial Watch's Thomas Fitton slams FBI's 'drip-drip' release for 75,000 pages of Trump-Butler shooting files

Judicial Watch President Thomas Fitton slammed the FBI for slow-walking the release of documents related to Thomas Matthew Crooks' 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

"They are telling us that at current processing rates, the process will take 12 years. Under the FBI's timeline, we won't even be able to challenge what they withheld until 12 years from now. That is obviously unacceptable, and I would like to know what leadership at the FBI and DOJ think about that position," Fitton told Fox News Digital.

Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2025 after the FBI initially rejected a July 2024 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents pertaining to the FBI investigation of Thomas Matthew Crooks' assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

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The lawsuit forced the release of multiple batches of documents to Judicial Watch, the most recent of which revealed a series of text messages Crooks sent to an unknown recipient, whose name the FBI redacted before sending to Judicial Watch.

"Were receiving these documents because they're part of the investigation, yet were not being told who he was talking to," Fitton told Fox News Digital.

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"Withholding that information is a very concerning decision. The American people want to be certain this isn't another JFK situation. By handling it this way, authorities are creating the appearance of a cover-up. In part, that's true, because they aren't providing details about who Crooks was talking to, who was texting him, what they were saying, or who witnessed specific actions. It makes no sense to withhold this," he said.

The documents revealed a series of one or two-word texts Crooks sent to the redacted recipient between May 2023 and January 2024. The words appear unrelated and somewhat nonsensical.

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"Hello … Hello red …Hello red … Hdudhdbdbbd … 7888ejdj … Yolo … Ddodjjf … 890 … Hdjd … Djdj … red … Yup red … Hello … Jhhhuuh … Hhdj … Jjjjjjjjjjjj … Hello red … Red red," Crooks' messages said. 

Fitton, while acknowledging that any potential correspondents with Crooks have a reasonable expectation of privacy, argued that the FBI "must weigh that expectation of privacy against the public interest."

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"The public interest in understanding how a

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