Update: Shortly after the publication of this article, CBS published a story about how Crooks’s Steam account is purportedly “fake.” CBS cited an unnamed law enforcement source, while the article below is underpinned by reporting from The New York Times and Fox News. CBS’s story can be found here.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) On Monday, Headline USA published a story about the significance of the fact that alleged Trump shooter Thomas Crooks had an account with Discord—a chatting app used by feds, intelligence contractors and an assortment of bad actors to target gamers.
As this publication detailed, Discord is linked to multiple mass shootings and other terroristic events. This reporter has argued that investigators must look at Crooks’ Discord history to glean his motives and learn about others potentially involved in the assassination plot against Trump.
And sure enough, it’s now being reported that Crooks indeed “previewed” his attack on a gaming platform—not Discord, but a similar platform called Steam.
“At least once, [Crooks’s] browsing history signaled concerns about his own mental state. He also seems to have previewed his attack on Steam, a gaming platform he frequented, telling fellow gamers he planned to make his ‘premiere’ on July 13, the day of the shooting,” The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Crooks’s exact words were, “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds,” according to Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich.
NEWS: Fox has learned that Senators were told in the all-member briefing today that Thomas Crooks wrote on a gaming platform called ‘Steam’, “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds”
When investigators reviewed the laptop, they found a few searches in July of: Trump,…
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) July 18, 2024
Heinrich and others have also reported on a second phone Crooks had with just 27 contacts on it. Observers have begun to speculate whether that device could have been the shooter’s “burner phone,” used to conceal his dastardly plans.
Despite Crooks having at least two phones, as well as accounts on gaming platforms, authories continue to insist that he acted alone.
A Discord spokesperson also told the Associated Press there’s “no evidence” that Crooks used his account to promote violence or discuss his political views, while Steam didn’t immediately respond to a media inquiry from Headline USA.
Last year, NBC News reported that the Biden White House is “looking at expanding the universe of online sites that intelligence agencies and law enforcement authorities track.”
Around that same time last year, investigative reporter Lee Fang also published a story about how the U.S. government is partnering with private intelligence firms to spy on gaming chatrooms—revealing that the online spooks are particularly interested in conducting surveillance on teenagers.
Fang quoted an unnamed official from the Israeli threat intelligence firm CyberInt, who said: “I prefer to detect threat actors when they’re young or starting out at 14 or 15. That’s when I start observing and documenting their malicious activities. Because when they’re at that age or stage in their career, they’re a lot more careless and open. They tend to show off more.”
The latest information on the government’s targeting of gamers came in February, when the Government Accountability Office reported that the FBI increased its efforts last year to infiltrate gaming servers.
“Officials said in 2023, the FBI worked to increase engagement with gaming and gaming-adjacent companies for the annual meeting and on outreach efforts with the program manager,” the GAO report said.
“Officials said that as the FBI works with more companies, it continues to learn how companies operate, the type of behavior and content companies see on their platforms, and the extent to which companies report information as tips.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
