Did the man who tried to assassinate Republican nominee Donald Trump donate $15 to the Democrat online fundraising platform ActBlue or was it some other person as some people on social media claimed? Lead Stories confirmed through Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing reports that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man identified as the shooter, did donate $15 to ActBlue in 2021. We cross-referenced Crooks' address listed on the FEC filing with his Pennsylvania state voter registration form, and they do match.
The claim originated in a post shared on Instagram Threads on July 15, 2024, (archived here). The post read:
@morningjoe Where is morning Joe and why is the man being interviewed repeating that the shooter donated to ActBlue and we know that the donor was a different person who is 69?
This is how the claim appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram Threads screenshot taken Fri July 1 06:45:58 2024 UTC)
On July 14, 2024, the FBI identified (archived here) Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the person who made the assassination attempt against former President Trump on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
ActBlue is a nonprofit platform described on its website (archived here) as a "conduit" for people to donate funds to Democratic candidates and programs.
Lead Stories looked through the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing reports (archived here) for ActBlue donor information and found that Thomas Crooks donated $15 to ActBlue on January 20, 2021.
(Source: docquery.fec.gov screenshot taken Fri July 29 21:18:2024 UTC)
We then retrieved Crooks' voter registration from the Pennsylvania state website on July 15, 2024, which showed the same address listed on the FEC filing.
(Source: pavoterservices.pa.gov screenshot taken Fri July 19 21:29:02 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories has debunked other claims related to Crooks, which can be read here.
