Executive Summary
Two men are now dead because of what happened in a field in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. Why do we still not have the truth?
Investigative journalist Ken Silva joined me with sad news. Jim Copenhaver, one of the three rally goers shot that day, has passed away. He was 76. He was shot twice, once through the arm and once in the abdomen, and bullet fragments near his spine were never removed because the operation was too risky. He had dealt with health problems for two years. As Ken put it, if the Secret Service had done its job, he believes Jim would still be with us.
Corey Comparatore, the firefighter, was killed that day. David Dutch was shot in the liver. And now the Copenhaver family is grieving too.
Two years later, Ken is still uncovering things we should have known within weeks. President Trump said publicly last week that when he took office, records from the assassination attempt had been destroyed, altered or were simply missing. Yet by April 2025, his own FBI leadership was telling the public that Thomas Crooks acted alone and that there was nothing more to see.
We walked through the anomalies that still have no answer. Crooks's online communications. The counter-sniper whose own notes contradict his testimony to Congress. The local police officer who, Ken contends, actually stopped the shooting. The Secret Service resources sent to Jill Biden's indoor event 45 minutes away. And the strange arrest the day before Butler.
The best hope for accountability may not come from Washington at all. It may come from the lawsuit Jim Copenhaver and David Dutch filed against the government in June, a case that now carries the weight of a wrongful death.
Scroll to the bottom for Key Takeaways.
Jim Copenhaver: The Second Life Lost at Butler
Most people remember Corey Comparatore. He was the firefighter killed almost instantly by the fifth shot.
Fewer people remember the two other men who were hit. David Dutch took a bullet to the liver. Jim Copenhaver was shot twice. One round went through his arm. The other went into his abdomen and left fragments close to his spine that stayed in his body until the day he died.
Ken learned of Jim's passing the morning we spoke. The family has asked for privacy, so the cause of death has not been disclosed. But Ken was clear about where he believes the responsibility lies.
This is why I refuse to let this story go. It is not just about Donald Trump. These are families who have been torn apart, and two years later they still have no answers.
"Records Were Destroyed": The Timeline Doesn't Add Up
Last week President Trump posted that when he arrived in office, records related to the assassination attempt had been destroyed, altered or were missing.
Some people rolled their eyes at the way he framed it. But Ken pointed out that the core facts are not in dispute. Major outlets including the New York Times and the Washington Post have confirmed that Trump was denied security resources before Butler.
The bigger point is the timeline. Trump took office in January 2025. Kash Patel was appointed FBI director about a month later. Dan Bongino took office in late March 2025. And by April, the public was being told that Crooks was a lone wolf and that the day came down to a series of unfortunate security failures.
That is not enough time to investigate anything. As Ken put it, they could only have read what the previous FBI left in the files.
So now Bongino is back on his radio show calling for a new investigation. Ken's take was blunt — either Bongino didn't know the records were destroyed and told the president Crooks acted alone anyway, or he did know and hid it. Either way, it is a failure of the job.
Who Was Thomas Crooks Talking To?
For Ken, the single most important unanswered question is Crooks's online communications. Who was he talking to? Who else might have been involved? Who taught him to build the explosive devices found in his room and his car?
The limited information we do have came from reporting by Breanna Morello, Tucker Carlson and Miranda Devine. It showed YouTube comments from around 2019 and 2020 in which Crooks openly talked about assassinating politicians. Ken's point is simple — that kind of rhetoric on a major platform does not go unnoticed by federal law enforcement.
It gets worse. The reporting showed Crooks was in communication with an account run by a neo-Nazi in Norway tied to the Nordic Resistance Movement, a group the State Department later designated as a terrorist organization. Ken's conclusion: Crooks was talking to someone on a watch list, which strongly suggests he was on the feds' radar.
And we're expected to believe they can't find his digital footprint? They tell us AI is so powerful it could end the world, but it can't locate one young man's online chats? I don't buy it for a second. If they wanted to find it, they would.
The Counter-Sniper, the Local Cop and the Missing 15 Seconds
To me, this is one of the most disturbing parts of the whole day.
We were all told there were no snipers on that roof because it was "too sloped." Ken calls that the most ridiculous excuse of the day. The Secret Service did have counter-snipers covering that roof.
According to Ken, Crooks fired eight shots in about five seconds. A local police officer responded immediately, firing from the ground and disabling Crooks. The Secret Service counter-sniper fired more than 15 seconds after the first shot.
Then came the testimony. The counter-sniper told Congress he did not see Crooks until all eight shots had been fired. But the Senate Homeland Security Committee obtained the sniper's own notes, written right after the shooting, saying he saw Crooks crawling into place with a rifle before the shooting began. His own notes contradict his testimony.
And this agent is still on Trump's detail. President Trump has publicly thanked him, saying he responded within four seconds from 400 yards away. Ken says neither number is true — it was 15 seconds from just over 200 yards.
If the president is being briefed with misinformation about who saved his life, what else is he being told?
Jill Biden, an Indoor Casino and the Resources Trump Didn't Get
On the same day, at the same time, Jill Biden was in Pittsburgh, about 45 minutes from Butler.
Ken laid out the contrast. Trump was speaking in an open field of roughly 10 acres, surrounded by potential threats. Jill Biden was speaking indoors at a casino to a dinner group of about 70 people, in a building that already had magnetometers.
Yet she was given counter surveillance division officers — the plainclothes Secret Service officers who would have been dealing with exactly the kind of problems seen at Butler, like the suspicious man walking around with a range finder.
The excuse was that she was part of the administration and Trump was just a candidate. Ken says that doesn't hold up, especially since there was intelligence of a supposed Iranian threat against Trump at the time.
The Arrest the Day Before Butler
That Iranian threat leads to one of the strangest threads of all.
Less than 24 hours before Butler, on July 12, a Pakistani man who was allegedly working for Iran to kill Trump was arrested. Ken describes it as a manufactured case — one target and several undercover agents posing as hit men.
Joe Kent, the former counterterrorism director at the ODNI, wanted to know whether there was any connection between the informants in that case and Thomas Crooks. According to Ken, Kent was stonewalled and resigned after realizing his investigation was going nowhere.
When even people with real power get stonewalled, We the People have to ask: who is actually in charge?
A Pattern of Failing Up and Manufactured Cases
Ken made another point that should stop all of us cold. The agent who was in charge of Trump's detail at Butler is now running the entire Secret Service — with a bigger budget, more agents and more power.
That fits a pattern I've watched for years. People fail, and they get promoted.
Ken also explained how this connects to the FBI's counterterrorism culture. After 9/11, the counterterrorism division exploded in budget and importance. To justify that, it needs cases. Too often those cases involve vulnerable people steered by informants, handed fake bombs and arrested for the cameras. Meanwhile, real would-be assassins like Thomas Crooks and Ryan Routh slip through.
We saw this with the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot in Michigan. We saw it with the Proud Boys case. When the government builds the plot and then arrests the one person who took the bait, why isn't that entrapment?
The Lawsuit May Be Our Best Hope
So where does accountability come from?
Ken's answer: the lawsuit. In June, Jim Copenhaver and David Dutch sued the government for negligence that led to their wounds at Butler. Jim's widow remains a party to the case. David Dutch remains a party. And Ken says their lawyers are fighters who are not letting go.
With a death now part of the story, the case moves from an injury claim toward a wrongful death claim. If it reaches discovery and depositions, we could finally see what the investigations never showed us.
My fear is that the case gets settled before discovery. We've watched the Justice Department settle one case after another. The goal has to be discovery.
I believe citizens and independent journalists like Ken are the ones moving this forward. Not Washington. Us.
Key Takeaways
- Jim Copenhaver, shot twice at Butler on July 13, 2024, has died, making him the second life lost from that day.
- President Trump says records from the assassination attempt were destroyed, altered or missing when he took office.
- By April 2025, new FBI leadership was publicly calling Crooks a lone wolf after only weeks in office.
- The counter-sniper's own notes say he saw Crooks crawling into place before the shooting, contradicting his testimony.
- Ken Silva contends a local police officer, not the Secret Service, stopped Crooks first.
- Jill Biden's 70-person indoor casino event got counter surveillance officers that Trump's open-air rally did not.
- The families' negligence lawsuit, now carrying a wrongful death, may be the best path to discovery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Jim Copenhaver's death matter beyond the tragedy itself?
Because it turns an injury case into one involving a death, and it puts a second human life squarely on the ledger of Butler. Jim was carrying bullet fragments near his spine that were never removed. His family deserves answers, and so do we.
If records were destroyed, how did the FBI conclude Crooks acted alone?
That's exactly the question. New leadership arrived in early 2025 and announced a lone-wolf conclusion by April. Ken Silva's point is that there was no time for a real investigation — they could only repeat what was already in the files.
Who actually stopped Thomas Crooks?
According to Ken's reporting, a local police officer fired from the ground and disabled Crooks after his eight shots. The Secret Service counter-sniper fired more than 15 seconds later, and his written notes contradict what he told Congress.
Can the families' lawsuit really get us the truth?
It might be the best chance we have. Discovery and depositions can force records and testimony into the open. That only happens if the case isn't quietly settled first, which is why public attention matters.
How can I follow Ken Silva's reporting?
Ken runs HeadlineUSA.com, posts on X, and wrote the book The Trump Assassination Plots: What the Investigations Missed and Why It Matters.
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