The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) “butchered” its investigation into the 2017 congressional baseball shooting — which injured six, as well as severely wounded Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) — and downplayed the anti-Republican motives of gunman James T. Hodgkinson, a new House Intelligence report revealed.
A scathing report released Tuesday by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that the FBI knowingly “butchered” its probe into the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting in order to bolster another narrative.
“The FBI used false statements, manipulation of known facts, and biased and butchered analysis to support a narrative that Hodgkinson committed suicide by cop without any nexus to domestic terrorism,” the report stated.
“Then, based upon no new information or evidence gathering, the FBI changed its previous decision that this case was a purely criminal matter involving suicide by cop,” the blistering House report continued.
After that, the FBI “spent the next four years privately guarding the basis for its determinations by impeding Congressional oversight,” the Committee said.
The report explained that after Hodgkinson’s June 14, 2017 attack on Republican lawmakers in Alexandria, Virginia, the FBI hastily concluded the gunman opened fire on members of Congress because he wanted to commit “suicide by cop.”
“The Committee finds the FBI’s conclusion to be inconsistent with the facts and evidence,” the report said, pointing out that in order “to commit suicide by cop, the perpetrator needs to demonstrate hostile intent in the presence of police.”
But in Hodgkinson’s case, “there were no observable police officers present,” given that authorities were dressed in plain clothes, the House Intelligence report revealed.
Capitol Police officers dressed in plain clothes engaged Hodgkinson after he opened fire on Republican lawmakers, “but the uniformed officers of the Alexandria Police Department” arrived about three minutes later, the Committee noted.
“Since there were no uniformed police officers present at the time of the attack and Hodgkinson had no reason to believe there were police present, the suicide by cop determination does not make sense,” the report determined.
Furthermore, Hodgkinson took “several actions” that suggested “he hoped to survive the firefight,” the Committee continued, citing the shooter searching for directions from Alexandria to his home in Belleville, Illinois, as well as texting his wife that he would be coming back.
The report also referred to eyewitnesses who told the media they saw Hodgkinson hiding behind a storage building while firing at GOP lawmakers — which serves as another indication that the gunman did not aspire to be taken out by authorities in the midst of his attack.
“The FBI investigation failed even to conduct substantive interviews of all the shooting victims and other eyewitnesses,” the Committee stated.
Nonetheless, the report went on to highlight that, “Regardless of whether Hodgkinson intended to die that day, suicide is not mutually exclusive with domestic terrorism.”
Moreover, Hodgkinson was known for harboring strong animosity against Republicans, and was also a member of a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party,” whose members praised him after his attack.
The report revealed that the FBI eventually changed its position in an April 2021 testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, where the agency admitted Hodgkinson’s motive was “to commit an attack on Members of Congress” adding this act is characterized “as a domestic terrorism event.”
The following month, the FBI referred to the gunman as “an individual with a personalized violent ideology” who “targeted and shot Republican Members of Congress at a baseball field and wounded five people,” noting, “this was categorized as a Domestic Violent Extremist,” the report added.
“The FBI arrived at the obvious conclusion four years too late,” the Committee asserted, adding the agency’s actions were “an injustice to Hodgkinson’s many victims and the American people.”
Additionally, the FBI did not “change course” to admit Hodgkinson committed domestic terrorism in an attack targeting Republicans until the agency was investigating January 6 protesters, the Committee pointed out in its report.
On top of that, the FBI’s concealed evidence even includes crucial information about a handwritten note found on Hodgkinson, which listed several Republicans as targets. The agency acknowledged it found a piece of paper containing the names of six members of Congress, but did not elaborate.
The Committee praised FBI Director Kash Patel for his transparency in providing a review of the agency’s 2017 case file, calling his cooperation “a welcome change from previous FBI leadership, who thwarted Congressional oversight and public accountability at every turn.”
The report went on to declare that “With new leadership, the FBI has an opportunity to relocate true north.”
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is now calling on Patel “to return the FBI to its core values and to ensure its investigators and intelligence analysts exercise the analytical integrity required by law.”
The Committee is urging the FBI director “to determine how the FBI arrived at its 2017 decision to categorize Hodgkinson’s act as suicide by cop,” and also advised lawmakers to “consider legislation that establishes criminal liability for the politicization of intelligence analysis.”
Additionally, the report asked Patel to “addresses why the FBI chose not to conduct substantive interviews of all the victims and other eyewitnesses,” and to “take actions necessary to achieve accountability for any misconduct and to address any procedural deficiencies.”
Patel should also “assess whether domestic extremists are increasingly radicalizing and willing to resort to political violence,” and if so, he should “propose any legislative solutions that help address this problem and fully protect the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment,” the report added.
Democrats on the Committee agreed with much of the report’s discoveries regarding the FBI’s failures in its 2017 investigation, but argued that Republicans did not provide evidence explaining the political motives that led to the agency’s original botched conclusion.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
The post House Intel Report: FBI ‘Butchered’ 2017 Congressional Baseball Shooting Investigation, ‘Used False Statements’ to Uphold A Narrative appeared first on Breitbart.
