Andrew Torba, the CEO of Gab, a social media platform known as an alternative to Twitter, is refuting allegations from the FBI that Thomas Matthew Crooks, an individual accused of planning to assassinate former President Trump, disseminated “antisemitic” and “anti-immigration” views on his site. Instead, Torba asserts that Crooks posted content on Gab that was supportive of immigration and critical of Trump.
This Tuesday, Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate and acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe testified before Congress. During this session, Abbate informed the Senators about two separate social media accounts believed to be operated by Crooks. The FBI claims one account circulated “antisemitic” themes and sentiments while another on Gab presented contrasting perspectives.
“While our investigative team is still in the process of confirming whether this account indeed belongs to the perpetrator, we deem it necessary to share and highlight this information today, particularly due to the lack of other information from social media and other sources shedding light on the potential motives and mindset of the shooter,” Abbate conveyed to lawmakers.
In response to Abbate’s testimony, Torba – who had previously disclosed that the FBI had notified Gab about a potential account belonging to Crooks and requested the preservation of its associated data – posted a rebuttal on Tuesday.
“This contradicts Gab’s understanding of the shooter’s motives based on an Emergency Disclosure Request (‘EDR’) we received from the FBI last week for the Gab account ‘EpicMicrowave’ which, according to the EDR’s content, seemed to be owned by Thomas Crooks,” Torba wrote.
Torba subsequently shared a portion of the FBI’s request, leaving some sections redacted to respect the ongoing investigation’s sensitivity.
In a post from the account suspected to belong to Crooks, he appears to be defending President Biden’s immigration policies against a pro-Trump poster.
“First of all Biden executive orders don’t incentivize human trafficking as human traffickers aren’t interested in citizenships, likewise the majority of illegal immigrants are not criminals and in fact some studies (such as the one linked below) show lower rates of crime committed by these individuals,” reads one post from the account. The post then links to a study from PNAS.
In another post, the account allegedly managed by Crooks suggested that COVID-19 lockdowns were an effective policy.
“The narrative is clear: the data requested for this account was UNDENIABLY supportive of Biden, specifically his immigration policy,” Torba stated.
“As far as Gab is aware, as of 2021, Crooks was a left-wing supporter of Joe Biden who advocated for lockdowns and immigration.”
This shocking report caught the attention of Elon Musk, who suggested that if the account does indeed belong to Crooks, the FBI deputy director committed perjury. “It sure looks like the FBI leadership engaged in perjury,” Musk wrote.
So far, the FBI has reported it is unable to determine why Crooks attempted to kill the former president. While Crooks was registered as a Republican voter, he did donate to ActBlue, a progressive fundraising organization, on President Biden’s inauguration day.
Apart from the alleged Gab account, the deceased gunman’s presence on social media was virtually non-existent. He had a Discord account – a messaging app popular among gamers – but it has been deleted by the platform.
One former classmate described Crooks as a “Trump hater” who would frequently engage in political debates.
“Thomas was a quiet kid unless there was something that he was passionate about. Politics being one of them, he just did not like politicians, especially with the choices that we’ve had. He did not like our politicians,” said Vincent Taormina, a former classmate of Crooks, noting that this became particularly evident in 2016.
“So I brought up the fact that I’m Hispanic and you know I’m for Trump, and he said, ‘well you’re Hispanic so shouldn’t you hate Trump?’ And I was like, ‘no he’s great, I mean like he’s a great president.’ And he called me stupid, or insinuated that as if he’s like, well, that’s kind of stupid.”
“So like, once again, if he was passionate about something, he would just talk, talk, talk and acted like he knew everything, especially politics related. And he was just, he would say it in a type of way. And meanwhile, it’s like, dude, we’re in the same classes. You know what I mean? We’re talking about the same stuff here,” the former classmate continued.
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Final Thoughts
As this saga unfolds, it’s clear that the truth is not as simple as some would like us to believe. The narrative being pushed by the FBI seems to contradict the data and evidence presented by Gab’s CEO. It’s disconcerting to see such discrepancies in a case of this magnitude. We must remain vigilant and demand transparency at every turn.
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