New House Report Faults FBI for Claiming Congressional Baseball Game Shooter Had ‘No Nexus to Terrorism’

A new congressional report finds the FBI put out “intentionally misleading” statements regarding the man who shot Republican members of Congress at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game in 2017.

The FBI published multiple statements claiming that the shooting had “no nexus to terrorism” and identifying the motive of the shooter—James Hodgkinson—as “suicide by cop.” Hodgkinson had opened fire on June 14, 2017, wounding six and nearly killing then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise before police fatally shot him. Evidence suggested Hodgkinson, a Bernie Sanders supporter, had intentionally targeted Republicans.

“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,” concludes the report published Tuesday by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Andrew McCabe was acting director at the FBI at the time of the shooting, and Christopher Wray took the reins on Aug. 2, 2017.

Four years later, by April 21, 2021, however, the FBI expressed a different position. “The shooter was motivated by a desire to commit an attack on members of Congress,” Jill Sanborn, the executive assistant director at the FBI’s National Security Branch, testified. “This conduct is something that we would today characterize as a domestic terrorism event.”

“The 2017 decision to ignore the facts and to categorize and investigate this case as suicide likely led to less investigative process and no public understanding,” the report states. “The committee calls on Director [Kash] Patel to return the FBI to its core values and to ensure its investigators and intelligence analysts exercise the analytical integrity required by law.”

In June 2017, the FBI stated that Hodgkinson “told a family member that he was traveling to Washington, D.C., but he did not provide any additional information on his travel.”

Yet the report notes that by this time, “the FBI had interviewed not one, but five family members, all of whom provided considerable additional information.”

“The FBI’s statement appears to be intentionally misleading,” the report states. “Even the family member statement that FBI quoted above was truncated to exclude the clause ‘but suggested he might protest and attend rallies.’ The FBI also knew at the time that Hodgkinson told family members they may not see him again.”

The committee report presents evidence of Hodgkinson’s terrorist intent in targeting Republicans, evidence the FBI appears to have intentionally neglected.

The report shows a handwritten list of House Republicans Hodgkinson wrote, including Jeff Duncan, Mo Brooks, Trent Franks, and Jim Jordan.

It also presents quotes from Hodgkinson demonstrating his intent:

• “I was getting older and wanted to make a statement in my life before the end.”
• “Congress passed Citizens United, which let the rich put unlimited amounts of money into the election process. The rich had taken over the Republican Party”
• “They’re truly un-American against the poor and middle class as long as the rich get richer. They have done they’re task. These are the elected congressmen of the Republican Party. We should treat them w/the despicable hatred that they [stir] in us, for this great country will never be good again till they are all out of office”
• “How the Republican Party has duped the under educated, the religious fanatics, the backwoods, the racists, and the gung-ho warmongers in to following them.”

The shooter had also been a member and frequent commenter in a Facebook group titled “Terminate The Republican Party.” After the attack, members of the group praised his actions by posting a photo with the message, “One, two, three shots you’re out at the old ball game!!!”

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