‘Malicious, False, Juvenile’: Right-Wing Activist Unleashes on Kash Patel as Feud Over Trump Assassination Attempt Heats Up

LEFT: Kash Patel (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) RIGHT: Tom Fitton (Screenshot)

Tom Fitton, president of the right-wing nonprofit Judicial Watch, unleashed on FBI director Kash Patel as their feud over the July 2024 attempt on President Donald Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania heats up.

It all started on Sunday when Fitton claimed that FBI records showed that Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks, “emailed local law enforcement before” firing on Trump.

“For whatever reason, FBI is slow rolling the release of records about Butler,” added Fitton in a since-deleted post.

The FBI’s Rapid Response account on X addressed the claim with fire and fury.

“This is a CLICK BAIT LIE by @JudicialWatch which is now nothing more than the fake news media! The unredacted documents are interviews of Thomas Crooks’ by COLLEGE INSTRUCTORS, NOT cops, wherein those instructors reference to having emailed Thomas Crooks about COURSE WORK. They make NO references to contact between Thomas Crooks and ANY police department,” read its post on the matter. “Maybe if you spent more time on Facts instead of clicks you wouldn’t be a laughing stock.”

Patel himself promoted the post with the caption, “Facts over click bait,” causing Fitton to erupt in reply.

“That @FBIDirectorKash would promote this malicious, false and juvenile FBI post is disturbing.
@JudicialWatch fairly interpreted heavily redacted documents produced by the FBI and DOJ after nearly two years of waiting and litigating. To call me and @JudicialWatch liars for doing so — based on secret material which you have withheld from us and the court — is beneath contempt,” declared Fitton on Sunday evening. “If you have unredacted documents to share with us in this lawsuit, we will happily review and update our analysis. In the meantime, as government officials, you have a responsibility to apologize to me, @JudicialWatch and our supporters…and to delete your tweets. And immediately release the other 75,000 pages on the Butler assassination that the FBI is still hiding.”

On Monday afternoon, Fitton appeared to admit that his organization had gotten it wrong, but continued attacking Patel.

“The FBI’s dangerous smears and unlawful secrecy aside, @JudicialWatch just updated its press release on the Butler records after further review of information the FBI had hidden,” he wrote. “Why is @FBIDirectorKash’s FBI attacking me and Judicial Watch instead of following
@RealDonaldTrump’s standard of maximum transparency — especially on the assassination attempt on Biden’s watch that nearly killed him?”

Fitton has long been critical of Patel, declaring that the FBI and DOJ had lost “the confidence of the American people” last year amid widespread uproar over the Jeffrey Epstein case.

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