Former Fox News star Tucker Carlson is pushing a fresh conspiracy theory about the attempted assassination of President Trump — claiming the president himself ordered federal investigators to back off the probe into the July 2024 shooting in Butler, Pa.
Carlson made the explosive allegation during an appearance on Thursday on entrepreneur Mario Nawfal’s show, where he recounted what he described as a series of conversations with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel regarding lingering questions surrounding the attack.
The claim was quickly shot down by Bongino, who publicly denied Carlson’s account on Friday and blasted the former cable news host as a “nepo baby.”
“I know that, about Butler, I know that Trump shut down the investigation into Butler. That is a fact,” Carlson told Nawfal. “Dan Bongino told me that when he worked at the FBI.”
Carlson alleged Bongino became visibly rattled after Carlson confronted him about social media posts purportedly written by gunman Thomas Crooks that Carlson claims the FBI falsely said did not exist.
“Dan Bongino himself was terrified when I spoke to him in December,” Carlson said.
The conservative commentator claimed he had “accidentally came into possession” of social media posts allegedly authored by Crooks in the months and years before the shooting. Carlson said he contacted both Patel and Bongino seeking answers about why the FBI had allegedly concealed their existence.
“And Dan Bongino became hysterical with me on the phone,” Carlson claimed. “I’ve known Dan a long time for many years and always gotten along with him.”
“He was clearly terrified. I didn’t get it at first, but he was hysterical,” Carlson continued. “And ultimately, after a long series of text exchanges, which I still have, and phone conversations, he said, ‘Look, take it up with Trump. He’s the one who shut down the investigation.’”
Carlson said the alleged exchange occurred during the second week of December and left him questioning why Trump would halt an investigation into an attempt on his own life.
“That was the moment and I realized, ‘Oh wow, there’s no good explanation for shutting down an investigation into your own attempted murder,’” Carlson said.
Watch:
Crooks, 20, opened fire during a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, grazing Trump’s ear, killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore and seriously wounding two others before Secret Service snipers fatally shot him.
Authorities have said Crooks acted alone and have found no evidence linking him to a broader plot. However, the absence of a clear manifesto or publicly known motive has fueled persistent conspiracy theories online.
Carlson, once one of Trump’s most influential media allies, has increasingly broken with the president in recent months. He has repeatedly criticized Trump over the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and U.S. involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Earlier this year, Carlson suggested Trump’s worldview changed after the Butler shooting.
“He spent his campaign in the 2024 race arguing against regime change war, attacking people in favor of it — and then he launched it,” Carlson said on his own show. “And not just launched it, but became this kind of enthusiastic tool of the government of Israel.”
Bongino forcefully rejected Carlson’s latest allegations Friday morning in a post on X, denying he ever told Carlson that Trump shut down the Butler investigation.
The former FBI official also took a personal swipe at Carlson, dismissing the claims and mocking the commentator as a “nepo baby.”
