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

The FBI is moving so slowly in handing over files on the 2024 attempt to kill Donald Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally that challenging its redactions could be a dozen years away, according to Thomas Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Fitton said the bureau has told his group that, at its current processing pace, the work would take 12 years. He called that unacceptable and said he wants to hear what FBI and Justice Department leaders make of it.

Judicial Watch filed suit against the Justice Department in 2025, after the FBI first turned down a July 2024 Freedom of Information Act request about its investigation of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks. The case has produced several batches of records. The newest set contains text messages Crooks sent between May 2023 and January 2024, each only a word or two long and seemingly unconnected. The FBI blacked out the name of whoever received them.

Fitton argued that hiding the recipient's identity, along with who else was involved or watching, gives the public reason to suspect a cover-up and risks another episode like the one surrounding President John F. Kennedy's killing.

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