The young Pennsylvania man who opened fire on former President Donald Trump may have posted an ominous message on the gaming platform Steam hinting to fellow users that this past Saturday would be eventful, lawmakers were told Wednesday.
During a congressional briefing Wednesday, lawmakers were told that Thomas Crooks was on the platform and had hinted that he’d be in the news Saturday.
Two senior U.S. law enforcement officials told NBC New on Thursday that the FBI is trying to determine the authenticity of the Steam account and whether or not Crooks made the post.
GOP senators left that briefing deeply unsatisfied, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, calling for new leadership at the Secret Service after the meeting.
“Continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no intentions to step down,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in response to the meeting.
“She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews.”
A Steam user profile seen by NBC News used the name Thomas M. Crooks, but it appears that the profile’s handle was changed from a previous username Sunday afternoon — the day after the shooting — according to an archive of the profile collected by SteamID, a website not affiliated with Steam or Valve that tracks Steam user pages.
The profile also featured a widely circulated picture of Crooks as its avatar and has the language that was reported that appeared to foreshadow the attack.
The profile, which has been active since May 2023, previously went by “Blubber,” “Bubbles” and other usernames, according to SteamID. It was not clear when the language about the attack was added.
Crooks was killed shortly after the shooting Saturday at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was clipped in the ear and was possibly inches away from a fatal wound.
Investigators say they are still looking for what might have motivated Crooks to shoot at him. Investigators looked into Crooks’ internet history and found that he made searches this month specific to Trump, a rally and the Democratic National Committee, according to a senior U.S. law enforcement official.
He was a registered Republican but also made a $15 donation to the Progressive Turnout Project the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated in 2021, records showed.