From Grief to Accountability: Helen Comperatore’s Relentless Pursuit of Transparency
She has maintained that Crooks did not act entirely alone and is demanding full disclosure regarding any assistance or connections he may have had.
Two years after the assassination attempt on President Donald J. Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Helen Comperatore, widow of volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore, continues to grapple with unanswered questions.
Corey Comperatore, 50, was shielding his wife Helen and their two daughters from gunfire. Trump was grazed in the ear, and two other rally attendees were seriously injured.
The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed at the scene by Secret Service countersnipers.
Local police received multiple reports identifying Thomas Crooks as a suspicious person, yet, the Secret Service received only five calls and three text messages. Agents missed all 102 local radio transmissions about the shooter.
Despite the extraordinary complexity and significance of the figure they were charged with defending, the Secret Service did not respond in its customary fashion.
A critical communications element between local law enforcement and the Secret Service was not established.
Whether these profound security failures stemmed purely from gross incompetence or involved deeper negligence remains conspicuously absent from the official account of what occurred that day.
Helen Comperatore has been unrelenting in her pursuit of answers. She believes “someone inside the government” was involved and has suggested there was a broader plan surrounding the mass shooting.
In a telephone interview with The New York Times, she expressed her theory that the gunman did not act alone:
“I do not believe that this kid just got out of bed that day and decided to come over there and kill the president,” she said. “I believe that he was involved with someone greater than him, that worked with him and probably offered him money to do this, and I would like to know what that entailed.”
While she does not subscribe to a “second shooter” scenario involving Thomas Matthew Crooks, she has maintained that Crooks did not act entirely alone and is demanding full disclosure regarding any assistance or connections he may have had.
Comperatore has rejected certain conspiracy theories, such as claims that the event was staged. However, she has voiced suspicions of deeper involvement, including past comments linking the attempt to former President Biden.
She has noted that President Trump reached out to her in the immediate aftermath and has expressed hope that he will do so again, as many questions remain unresolved. In 2025, she met with the Secret Service under a nondisclosure agreement and continues to press for the family’s right to complete information.
Comperatore has spoken to multiple news outlets as she continues pressing for transparency.
These people do not act alone, the problem is an on going fact that there is a deep state calling the shots but our elected people will not look at that because there are too many of them on the take!!!!
If the target had been a high level Democrat, we would know everything, including things that weren't even true. We'd know everything that was on his phone. We'd know everywhere he's been for several days or weeks leading up to the shooting. We'd know what he had for breakfast.
Mostly, we'd have known he was on top of that building before he fired a shot. The silence screams conspiracy.