No, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wasn’t charged in Trump assassination attempt

The FBI has made no statements that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who shot President Donald Trump at a July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, had co-conspirators. But some social media users claim to have found one: the state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro.

"Apparently, Pennsylvania Governor Joshua Shapiro conspired in the 1st assassination attempt on Trump, per State Police whistleblower!" a Feb. 10 Facebook post’s caption said.

The post shared a screenshot of an X post that had received 7.7 million views by Feb. 14. That post said, "Shapiro being charged with the attempted assassination of Trump! Screw the superbowl this is HUGE!!!"

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screenshot from Facebook)

But Shapiro has not been criminally charged in the Trump assassination attempt and is not being investigated, Richard Goldinger, Butler County’s district attorney, told PolitiFact in a Feb. 14 email.

The person who wrote the X post also shared a screenshot of a complaint, which said it was filed Feb. 7 by Hadassah Feinberg, a private citizen. 

The X post was amplified by high-profile X conservative accounts such as Alex Jones and podcaster Shawn Ryan.

Feinberg runs an X account with the handle @SpeakUpPa that was temporarily restricted as of Feb. 14. On Feb. 9, however, an X post archived by NewsGuard shows, she wrote that the recent complaint was one of two filed against Shapiro.

Feinberg also runs a TikTok account, speak_up_pa, that was not available as of Feb. 14. Before it was removed, we found a video there in which she said, "I did file a private criminal complaint to the Butler County, Pennsylvania district attorney's office implicating Governor Josh Shapiro for the attempted assassination against former President Donald J Trump." That video was also on YouTube, where the @speakup account was still active as of Feb. 14.

She did not provide evidence in the video to back her claim that Shapiro was involved in the shooting. Sticker text on the video said Shapiro is "implicated for the attempted assassination against Trump and hundreds of crimes against innocent civilians."

Pennsylvania code lets anyone file private criminal complaints against a person, including an affidavit of probable cause and the alleged crimes.

"These are not common but they are filed sometimes," University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris said. "They rarely go anywhere."

Harris said such complaints are different from others in that they must be approved by the local district attorney. If denied, the person who filed it can "petition the court of common pleas for review of the decision. "

Featured Fact-check

Instagram posts

stated on February 2, 2025 in an Instagram post

Photo shows Black Hawk helicopter pilot in fatal crash worked for years with President Joe Biden at the White House.

"Good luck with that," Harris said. "For all intents and purposes, the DA's decision is final."  

Goldinger said the complaint is forwarded to the district attorney’s office that would have jurisdiction. That was him in this case. Goldinger said the district attorney then approves or disapproves the complaint and may have a county detective investigate further if there is merit.

Goldinger said it’s a "process that could easily be abused."

"Simply preparing a private criminal complaint does not mean charges have been filed against someone," Goldinger said.

Goldinger confirmed he had received two complaints about Shapiro from Feinberg, one in July and one on Feb. 7. He rejected the first complaint and said he had just seen the most recent complaint, and had not yet reviewed it.

"I can tell you that there is not an investigation pending regarding Governor Shapiro and the allegations contained in the complaint," Goldinger said. "Based on what I know, since this is the second private criminal complaint filed by this person against Governor Shapiro, I would not anticipate an investigation occurring. However, I will review the complaint carefully before deciding."

Shapiro’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

On the day of the attack, Shapiro condemned the shooting in an X post and said he was praying for Trump. At a news conference the following day, he praised victim Corey Comperatore, a spectator who was killed in the attack.

We rate the claim that Shapiro was charged in the attempted assassination of Trump Pants on Fire!