Did a Jewish family hire Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot former President Donald Trump? Or was Crooks trained to shoot by the CEO of BlackRock Security or by a rabbi? Has footage been leaked showing Crooks and the BlackRock CEO together carrying a gun? No, none of these claims are true: Using an AI-detection tool, Lead Stories found that the YouTube channels making these claims are using AI-generated images to illustrate fake clickbait headlines that promote conspiracy theories. The thumbnail images only appear before the videos play and do not represent any fact-based content within the videos.
The videos began to appear on YouTube after the July 13, 2024, shooting of Trump and three other people at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. This fact check will test the authenticity of thumbnail images for 12 of these videos from King Luxury Channels, PeakMomentsTV, Court Investigation Español and The Fugitive Crime Español.
Before the shooting, the King Luxury Channels (English, France and Español) typically featured tabloid-style content about the rich and famous. A year ago, PeakMomentsTV was posting home videos in Vietnamese before starting to specialize in fails-and-falls videos. Court Investigation Español and The Fugitive Crime Español post content that seems to be built on the similar template, using AI-generated crime, court and prison images.
But after the assassination attempt on Trump, these channels rapidly turned out AI-generated videos over 20 minutes long with conspiracy narratives including BlackRock Security, Jews and Rothschilds. Some conspiracies suggested the CIA or FBI was involved and others that President Joe Biden or even Trump himself were behind the shooting.
One example (archived here) of these videos was posted on July 21, 2024, by the YouTube channel King Luxury France under the French title "Famille Juive Qui A Embauché Le Tireur De Trump" -- in English, "Jewish Family Who Hired Trump's Shooter" (all translations by Google Translate).
The video's teaser image bears a title graphic that reads "TIREUR DU RASSEMBLEMENT DE TRUMP" or "TRUMP RALLY SHOOTER."
This is what the video looked like on YouTube:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Wed Aug 07 17:16:43 2024 UTC)
In a double layer of fakeness, the AI-generated figure representing Crooks appears to be based not on him, but on an internet troll with the handle @JewGazing who went viral pretending to be the shooter, as Lead Stories previously reported.
Similarly, the video's claim that someone hired Crooks to assassinate Trump is not supported by any credible, publicly available evidence. A July 14, 2024, FBI press release stated:
While the investigation to date indicates the shooter acted alone, the FBI continues to conduct logical investigative activity to determine if there were any co-conspirators associated with this attack. At this time, there are no current public safety concerns.
The FBI has not identified a motive for the shooter's actions, but we are working to determine the sequence of events and the shooter's movements prior to the shooting, collecting and reviewing evidence, conducting interviews, and following up on all leads. We have also obtained the shooter's telephone for examination.
On July 24, 2024, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing about the agency's investigation into the shooting. At 53:01 minutes into the video of the hearing, Wray said that the FBI had been able to get into Crooks' phone and that he was using some encrypted messaging applications. There had been rumors that Crooks had offshore bank accounts, but the FBI denied those reports to Lead Stories on July 30, 2024.
AI-generated YouTube thumbnail images
To analyze the above YouTube channels' video thumbnails, Lead Stories looked at the thumbnail-creation process.
By default, YouTube video thumbnails are automatically generated from a frame in the video chosen by an algorithm. If a content creator would like to use a custom video thumbnail, they must only verify their YouTube account to access that feature. In a YouTube Help FAQ guide about custom video thumbnails, the last point states that custom thumbnail images must follow Community Guidelines including YouTube's anti-misinformation policies.
The videos that are the focus of this fact check use custom thumbnail images that do not appear within the videos themselves. The thumbnails vanish as soon as the videos begin to play.
Testing the videos' thumbnails
To verify the authenticity of the thumbnail images for 12 of these videos, Lead Stories used a tool from AI-detection website TrueMedia.org that is currently in beta testing.
For this tool, Lead Stories extracted a high-resolution version (1280 by 723 pixels) of the thumbnails. (We used the first method described in OrbitingWeb.com, a collection of digital-skills tutorials.) These images allowed us not only to use TrueMedia, but to conduct reverse image searches to find alternate copies of these videos as well.
The custom thumbnail images pictured below are numbered for clarity and the Lead Stories composite image will open larger in a new window. This collection is not an exhaustive view of all that could be found on YouTube.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image of YouTube thumbnail screenshots taken on Thu Aug 08 22:11:40 2024 UTC)
AI Detection: Thumbnails 1 - 3
Thumbnail #1 is the thumbnail of a video on the King Luxury France channel "The Jewish Family Who Hired Trump's Shooter" (Famille Juive Qui A Embauché Le Tireur De Trump) (archived here). This thumbnail is also used on the King Luxury Español channel with the title, "La Familia Judía Que Contrató Al Tirador De Trump." TrueMedia.org labels this image uncertain "because it contains too many faces and it contains large amounts of text, which are outside our focus." But one analysis returned a 90 percent confidence that MidJourney was the likely source of the image.
Thumbnail #2 from the King Luxury France video '"How Blackrock Trained Trump's Shooter" ("Comment Blackrock A Formé Le Tireur De Trump") was found by TrueMedia.org to have substantial evidence of manipulation and the finding was verified by a human analyst.
Thumbnail #3 "Shocking Details Before Trump Attack Make Situation Worse" ("Détails Choquants Avant l'Attaque De Trump Rendent La Situation Plus Grave") was also found by TrueMedia to show substantial evidence of manipulation.
AI Detection: Thumbnails 4 - 6
These next three thumbnails are from King Luxury France.
Thumbnail #4 is from a video titled, "4 Things the US Government Wants to Hide About Trump's Jewish Shooter" ("4 choses que le Govt américain veut cacher sur le tireur juif de Trump"), with a text caption stating "The Rabbi Trained Him." This was found by True Media with 98 percent confidence to be an AI-generated image.
Thumbnail #5 is from the video titled, "New Video Of Jewish BlackRock CEO At Trump Rally Goes Viral" ("Nouvelle Vidéo Du PDG Juif De BlackRock Au Rassemblement De Trump Devient Virale") and was found by TrueMedia to show substantial evidence of manipulation.
Thumbnail #6 was addressed in an August 6, 2024, Lead Stories fact check here, and the thumbnail was used on all three King Luxury channels with videos titled, "New Footage of Trump's Shooter and Blackrock's Jew CEO Goes Viral" (archived here), "Nouvelle Vidéo Viral Du Tireur De Trump Et Du PDG Juif De Blackrock" (archived here) and "Nuevas Imágenes Del Tirador De Trump Y El CEO Judío De Blackrock Se Hacen Virales" (archived here). TrueMedia.org found that there was substantial evidence of manipulation and with 97 percent confidence found Stable Diffusion to be the likely source of the image.
AI Detection: Thumbnails 7 - 9
Thumbnail #7 from The Fugitive Crime Español channel is the thumbnail for a video, "New Video Of Trump Shooter's Father Forcing His Son To Kill Trump" ("Nuevo Vídeo Del Padre Del Tirador De Trump Obligando A Su Hijo A Matar A Trump"). TrueMedia.org labels its provenance uncertain "because it contains large amounts of text, which is outside our focus." But the tool has 99 percent confidence that the image was AI-generated.
Thumbnail #8 had substantial evidence of manipulation, according to Truemedia.org. This King Luxury Español video is titled, "Shocking Details Before Trump's Attack That Make It Worse Than You Think" ("Impactantes Detalles Antes Del Ataque De Trump Que Lo Hacen Peor De Lo Que Piensas") (archived here).
Thumbnail #9 from The Fugitive Crime Español channel "El Hijo De Trump Delata A Su Padre Y Filtra Pruebas Impactantes," received an uncertain reading from TrueMedia: "Could Be Authentic or Manipulated." This is accurate because it's both. The image of Donald Trump Jr. on the right is an enhanced photo pulled from a March 9, 2022, video he posted on Rumble. TrueMedia is 97 percent confident that the image on the left, showing Crooks meeting with Trump and Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, was AI-generated -- likely with Stable Diffusion. But the number of faces in the image led to an uncertain verdict.
AI Detection: Thumbnails 10 - 12
The last three thumbnail images are challenging for a program to analyze because of their amount of text and the fact that each is a composite of two images placed side by side. The photos of Tucker Carlson and Christopher Wray are real photos, but digitally enhanced in a way that softens textures like AI-generated images.
Thumbnail #10 may look familiar since the image on its lefthand side is a recycled version of thumbnail #6. But the rabbi in thumbnail #6 has been transformed into a Rothschild. The TrueMedia verdict, verified by a human analyst, was that thumbnail #10 shows substantial evidence of manipulation. The tool expressed 99 percent confidence that this is an AI-generated image.
The video the thumbnail promotes, "Trump Shooter's Family Apologizes In Court, Denounces Jews" ("La Familia Del Tirador De Trump Se Disculpa En El Juzgado Y Delata A Los Judíos") was posted by Court Investigation Español on YouTube on July 30, 2024. While it is unknown if Crooks' parents might face any legal consequences for their son's actions, at the time of this video's appearance on YouTube, they have not appeared in court.
Thumbnail #11 and thumbnail #12 are both from the PeakMoments TV channel. They are titled, "New Evidence Shows Rothschild Family's Direct Link to Trump's Shooter" and "FBI's Terrifying Discovery About Trump's Shooter Changes Everything" (archived here). When trying to extract the thumbnail images from these two PeakMoments TV videos, Lead Stories encountered something different -- the extracted thumbnails are not the same as the thumbnails that appear in the video previews. Screenshots of the thumbnails that video viewers actually see are shown above directly below thumbnail #11 and thumbnail #12. It is unclear why the extracted thumbnail does not match the thumbnail for the video preview or how this occurred.
TrueMedia.org found substantial evidence of manipulation on both the hidden thumbnails #11 and #12. The tool rated the video-preview thumbnail seen beneath extracted thumbnail #11 as 99 percent certain to be AI-generated. The second video-preview thumbnail, seen beneath #12, received a verdict of substantial evidence of manipulation.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims springing from the assassination attempt at the Butler Rally can be read here. Our fact checks related to AI-generated or AI-manipulated audio, images and videos can be found at leadstories.com/deepfakes.
