Kash Patel says Crooks’s devices show no evidence he communicated beyond his parents

FBI Director Kash Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee that investigators reviewing devices recovered from Thomas Crooks found "no evidence" Crooks communicated with anyone other than his parents. Patel delivered the statement under questioning from Sen.

Mike Lee at an oversight hearing, a day after the bureau released additional interview material that outlined Crooks’s upbringing, firearms purchases, and political views (per Washington Examiner). Patel’s comment narrows one central line of inquiry for prosecutors and intelligence analysts: whether Crooks acted alone or as part of a broader conspiracy.

The Washington Examiner account shows the bureau’s current public position is that device forensics have not revealed contacts beyond Crooks’s parents, but it does not describe the full scope of other investigative methods such as signal intelligence or human-source reporting.

Advocates for tighter public disclosure seized on Patel’s testimony as evidence the attack may have been the act of an isolated individual; others caution that absence of evidence on device communications is not proof of no broader contacts, a distinction the Examiner’s piece notes implicitly through its focus on what was found on devices rather than all investigative streams.

Patel framed his remarks in a high-profile Senate forum, which places pressure on the Justice Department and prosecutors to clarify charges and evidence in any forthcoming case; the Examiner reports the timing came immediately after newly disclosed FBI interviews that provided more granular biographical detail about Crooks.

The bureau’s device findings, as presented by Patel, change the tactical questions facing investigators—shifting emphasis toward motive, possession and procurement of firearms, and family contacts—while leaving unresolved whether other non-device evidence might yet tie Crooks to external actors.

For now, the only explicitly documented communications the bureau says it has identified on Crooks’s devices are with his parents, according to Patel’s Senate testimony (per Washington Examiner).

• Only the Washington Examiner is provided; it emphasizes Patel’s device-forensics finding and the Senate hearing setting without offering competing framings from other outlets (per Washington Examiner)

• No source in this pack disputes Patel’s statement, but the Examiner does not confirm whether other investigative streams (signals intelligence, human sources) have found contacts beyond parents (per Washington Examiner)

• No source mentions whether investigators used signal intelligence, warrants for third-party records, or human-source interviews beyond the newly disclosed FBI interviews; those investigative avenues are omitted (per Washington Examiner).
• No source provides courtroom filings, charging decisions, or dates for indictment or trial preparation—those procedural steps are not covered (per Washington Examiner).
• No source reports on the content of communications with Crooks’s parents or whether parents are witnesses, subjects, or cooperators in the probe (per Washington Examiner).

• No conflicting numerical figures appear in the provided source pack; the Examiner provides the date of the hearing as Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026 (per Washington Examiner)

• The Examiner reports Patel’s device finding and notes it followed newly disclosed FBI interviews; it does not assert a causal chain beyond sequence (per Washington Examiner)

• The Washington Examiner attributes the "no evidence" finding to Kash Patel in his Senate testimony (per Washington Examiner)