FBI pushed 'false narrative' about leftist terrorist's shooting of Scalise, GOP baseball practice: House report

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and several other Republican lawmakers were practicing for a charity baseball game on June 14, 2017, when a leftist terrorist took aim at them and opened fire. Alexandria police officers and U.S. Capitol police officers were able to permanently neutralize the shooter, a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — but not before he hit Scalise and three others.

Days after the shooting, the FBI acknowledged that the shooter, James Hodgkinson, had repeatedly espoused "anti-Republican views"; identified six members of Congress as targets; prepared for months; and ensured that the individuals on the field were Republicans before his attack. However, the FBI concluded there was "no nexus to terrorism" and ultimately spun the attack as suicide by cop.

A newly released congressional report claims that the bureau "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 majority staff report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released Tuesday noted that years after this mischaracterization, "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," and recognized the attack as a "domestic terrorism event."

'This report definitively shows the FBI completely mishandled the investigation.'

"The FBI arrived at the obvious conclusion four years too late," continued the report. "Unfortunately, the timing of the changed position indicates politics rather than Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity by an agency that should be guided by an apolitical commitment to uphold the Constitution."

Scalise, who took a bullet to the hip and suffered fractured bones, damaged organs, and severe bleeding, said in a statement, "This report definitively shows the FBI completely mishandled the investigation into the Congressional baseball shooting of 2017 — ignoring crucial and obvious facts in order to sell a false narrative that the shooting was not politically motivated."

Scalise thanked FBI Director Kash Patel and the committee "for finally getting to the truth of the matter: this was a deliberate and planned act of domestic terrorism toward Republican Members of Congress."

Patel enabled the committee to review the FBI case file, which congressional investigators received in two tranches, altogether amounting to roughly 4,400 pages.

Congressional investigators determined on the basis of the case file that the FBI investigation failed to substantively interview eyewitnesses to the shooting, failed to develop a comprehensive timeline of events, and improperly classified the file at the Secret level, "which may have assisted the FBI in obfuscating its substandard investigative efforts and analysis."

'Based upon one erroneous factual conclusion and two false premises.'

The House report also picked apart the FBI's preferred narrative as well as some of the bureau's public statements, noting for instance that:

• whereas the FBI publicly stated Hodgkinson told a family member he was traveling to Washington, D.C., but had not provided "any additional information on his travel," the case file indicates the bureau had by that time interviewed five of the terrorist's family members, "all of whom provided considerable additional information";
• the FBI gave undue weight to the suggestion by Hodgkinson's brother that the terrorist wanted to commit suicide by cop, which was apparently based not on a discussion with his brother but on a post-action opinion on his brother's "poor markmanship during the attack";
• "since there were no uniformed 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" especially since he took "several actions that may indicate he hoped to survive the firefight";
• a desire to die is not mutually exclusive with domestic terrorism — after all, "suicide bombs are a routine tactic of terrorism";
• whereas the FBI claimed "no context was included" on Hodgkinson's kill list, the list included physical descriptions of Republican lawmakers as well as the names of two Republicans on the congressional baseball team present for the fateful practice;
• the FBI's assertion that "Hodgkinson's list of six congressmen found in his vehicle does not appear to be a 'hit list'" is "based upon one erroneous factual conclusion and two false premises";
• the FBI intimated there were only two documents in the terrorist's possession when in fact there were pages of notes "demonstrating his political thoughts and motivations";
• the FBI claimed the terrorist "was not a member of any extremist organization and did not have contact with individuals who were affiliated with extremist organizations" but glossed over his membership in a Facebook group called "Terminate The Republican Party"; and
• the FBI claimed it "found no information to indicate Hodgkinson chose to act to impact government policy or the political system" despite the terrorist claiming before leaving Illinois with his weapons that he was going to D.C. to protest government policy.

The committee recommended that Patel figure out how the FBI arrived at its 2017 decision to frame the attack as suicide by cop — as well as whether then-acting Director Andrew McCabe or another senior leader pushed for that conclusion.

The committee also suggested the possibility of pursuing legislation that "establishes criminal liability for the politicization of intelligence analysis."

Democrats on the committee agreed with the majority's finding that the shooting was a "domestic terror attack motivated at least in part by political animus" and suggested the FBI should have made that determination sooner. However, the Democratic members cast doubt on whether political considerations factored into the FBI's failure to immediately recognize the attack as domestic terrorism and advocated against considering criminal charges against intelligence analysts.

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