Book on Trump assassination attempt looks only at facts
Author and Grove City resident Todd Bromley said conspiracy theories flew around after the attempt on then-former President Donald Trump’s life at the Butler Farm Show grounds on July 13, and straight, unbiased facts were few.
“So, I just decided to dive in and see if I could put a timeline together, because I thought that would be one of the most important things to know,” Bromley said. “Anyone can make a timeline to fit their narrative.”
The result of that decision is “Dark Democracy,” Bromley’s fourth book, which is available on Amazon.
Bromley said every word in the 109-page book is based on facts, and nothing more.
“There’s no speculation in the book,” he said. “Everything has a source.”
Bromley had been to the Butler Farm Show grounds before, but had never paid attention to the layout or location of buildings. Also, overhead footage that appeared on the news in the days after the shooting made the two properties appear more expansive and far-flung than they are.
“When I saw the landscape, I was surprised at how close and compact everything is,” he said of the American Glass Research and Butler County Farm Show properties.
Bromley spent two and a half months driving to the farm show grounds to take pictures and measurements with his drone to stage the locations of the shooter, counter snipers and victims, which includes the incident’s lone fatality, Corey Comperatore, 50, a Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department firefighter, husband and father, who was shielding his family during the shooting.
“My main purpose was to establish a timeline and address some of the conspiracy theories with facts,” he said. “I want the reader to go on the journey and make their own decisions.”
He figures he visited the Farm Show grounds about 20 times. He entered through the gate on Buttercup Road and sat in the bleachers as he flew his drone.
“I got thrown out a couple times,” Bromley said. “They were getting a lot of people rubbernecking.”
He was unable to access AGR — where the shooter was able to get to a roof to carry out his plan — as all entrances were blocked by security.
In addition to spending days at the farm show grounds, Bromley also tried to contact U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, who headed up his own congressional investigation of the shooting.
Kelly’s office did not return phone messages or emails from Bromley.
Bromley is not impressed with the investigation led by Kelly and his task force.
“They found five things that went wrong, but they were not asking the right people questions, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Local police, Bromley said, were much more accommodating with information.
Bromley tackled a few conspiracy theories that have floated around since July.
He realized in looking at the days before the incident that the shooter, Thomas Crooks, of Bethel Park, who police shot dead after he began firing, used the same shooting range in Clairton, Allegheny County, as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“I’ve got the sign-in sheets,” Bromley said.
He also uncovered that Crooks appeared in a commercial as a teenager for the controversial investment giant BlackRock.
Bromley’s book touches on the conspiracy theory that stocks were short selling the day before the assassination attempt. If stocks are short selling, that means investors expect the market to fall sharply in the coming days.
He said including evidence gathering and writing, he spent 12 hours per day on the book for three straight months.
“The thought that a 20-year-old thought he could get within shooting distance of a presidential candidate with an AR-15, that’s pretty shocking,” Bromley said.
“Dark Democracy” contains 30 images, and all sources are named to prove Bromley’s opinion is not included in the book.
He hopes readers will enjoy the results of his investigation of the incident that put Butler County in the national and international news for tragic reasons.
“I tried to compare it to living like three or four blocks from Dealey Plaza in 1963,” Bromley said.
