Joe Kent, who previously led the National Counterterrorism Center, claimed on Friday that the FBI prevented him from looking into potential Iranian ties related to an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Kent stated that the FBI determined the agency acted independently. They seemingly overlooked whether the Butler incident was connected to an earlier, failed assassination attempt related to Iran. He noted that the FBI had ceased its own investigation into the matter. Kent, who resigned abruptly on March 17 over tensions regarding an Iran conflict, mentioned this during a speech on Thursday in a conversation with Cenk Uyghur from “The Young Turks.”
“Initially, we were told that the suspect, a lone gunman named Crooks, was dead. Yet, Crooks remained a bit of a mystery, and we didn’t hear much more about him. It was as if he just vanished from the narrative,” Kent shared, referencing the little-known 20-year-old shooter who was neutralized by a Secret Service sniper shortly after shooting at Trump.
He elaborated, saying, “Just days prior to the Butler shooting, Asif Merchant was allegedly hired by Iranian agents to kill Trump, supposedly in retaliation for the assassination of Qassem Soleimani. When Merchant arrived, the FBI took swift action against him.”
Authorities apprehended Merchant, who later confessed to being an agent for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps before attempting to assassinate Trump. A federal grand jury found him guilty on March 6.
Kent posed an essential question: “Did we thoroughly investigate any links between these events?”
“Fast forward, and investigative reporters, like those at Tucker Carlson’s team, uncovered a wealth of information about Thomas Crooks online, revealing much more than the FBI seemed to have found,” he commented, referring to Carlson’s 2025 documentary regarding the would-be assassin.
“I felt it was crucial to delve back into the intelligence channels and examine what insights we could gather from Tucker’s reporting about Crooks’ online activities. We were possibly missing connections, especially to the Merchant plot, so we focused on what transpired in Butler,” he added.
“However, the FBI was resolute in their stance. They effectively said, ‘There’s nothing more to explore here,’ halting any further investigation of those angles,” Kent recounted.
Uyghur found this puzzling, questioning why, if the merchants were indeed linked with the Iranians, there wouldn’t be a drive for further investigation. “It raises a flag, especially given the situation when the president was targeted,” he remarked.
Kent argued, “I was advocating for a comprehensive inquiry to rule out any broader Iranian conspiracy. But that pursuit was abruptly stopped.”
Uyghur responded, expressing astonishment at the regime’s apparent reluctance to scrutinize an Iranian connection, especially when such events unfolded so closely together.
The FBI has yet to provide any comment regarding these claims.
