The assumption built into ephemeral messaging is that client-side deletion ends the record. It does not. Newly released FBI documents turned over to the Senate show that Thomas Crooks, who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, maintained a Snapchat account under the username "tom_crooks19," and former federal investigators say the platform likely holds recoverable evidence.
Snapchat is designed around the premise that images disappear after a recipient views them. Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason Pack, speaking to Fox News Digital, said that reality is incomplete. When investigators have served search warrants on the platform, the returned data has been substantial. "There's been a treasure trove of information that has come back," Pack said. He acknowledged some elements of Crooks' specific account may not have been recoverable but characterized the overall volume as "a good amount of information." Pack noted that Snapchat is not fully encrypted, which creates a forensic surface that more hardened services would not.
What the documents identify
Beyond the Snapchat account, the FBI files reviewed by the Senate locate an Amazon account tied to Crooks, a Gmail account, and a Mailfence account. Mailfence is an encrypted email service. The records show Crooks accessed that Mailfence account multiple times between April 15, 2024, and July 8, 2024, the most precisely time-bounded digital record in the files released so far.
Pack described a pattern across the accounts. He noted the use of aliases and what appeared to be careful management of any visible footprint. "If he's taking that much care to publicly not be seen picking up deliveries and those types of things, you have to assume he's probably taken just as much diligence with his social media and with his digital footprint," Pack said.
What the FBI found on connections
Crooks killed one person and seriously injured two others in the July 13, 2024 attack. FBI Director Kash Patel testified before the Senate Oversight Committee that the investigation found no link between Crooks and any external actor. "We found no evidence that that individual was literally even speaking to any other human being other than his parents, who he resided with," Patel testified.