FBI deputy director Paul Abbate made statements during a Senate hearing earlier today regarding a social-media account allegedly belonging to Thomas Matthew Crooks. The CEO of the social network GAB, Andrew Torba, disputed Abbate’s claims about Crooks’ motive and mindset behind his attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
Torba disputed the claim that the “motive and mindset” to assassinate Trump was represented by alleged “anti-Semitic and anti-immigration” comments on GAB, stating on X:
The story is this: the account for which data was requested was, UNEQUIVOCALLY, pro-Biden and in particular pro-Biden’s immigration policy. To the best of Gab’s knowledge, as of 2021, Crooks was a pro-lockdown, pro-immigration, left-wing Joe Biden supporter.
Abbate claimed that Crooks posted anti-Semitic and anti-immigration comments supportive of political violence, stating:
Something just very recently uncovered that I want to share is a social media account which is believed to be associated with the shooter in about the 2019, 2020 time frame. There are over 700 comments posted from this account. Some of these comments if ultimately attributable to the shooter appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature. While the investigative team is still working to verify this account to determine if it did in fact belong to the shooter, we believe it important to share and note it today, particularly given the general absence of other information to date from social media and other sources of information that reflect on the shooters potential motive and mindset. These are the facts, in part, that the investigation has revealed to date, while the shooter is dead, our work is very much ongoing and urgent.
Elon Musk shared Torba’s post, and claimed FBI leadership had made false statements, stating on X, “It sure looks like the FBI leadership engaged in perjury.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked Abbate about the leftist comments on the GAB account, stating, “We understand that the GAB account is pro-immigration, pro-lockdown, leftist views, is that accurate?” Abbate confirmed Blackburn’s statement was accurate, and said the FBI was working to verify the account, stating, “I haven’t seen it directly but I believe from what I have been told that is accurate, with the GAB account we’re also, though that’s been publicly revealed through the CIO and other things, we’re still working to certify and verify that that’s his account,”
Last week, Torba shared comments posted by the account, and said the majority of the comments were in support of President Biden, stating on X:
While the account made very few posts on the site, the majority of them were in support of President Biden. A number of posts in particular expressed support for President Biden’s COVID lockdowns, border policies and executive orders. We have saved the account data pending receipt of a search warrant.
