A report released on Tuesday by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence claims that the FBI “butchered” its investigation into the 2017 congressional baseball shooting.
To recap, on June 14, 2017, Republican members of congress were practicing for the upcoming congressional baseball game when James T. Hodgkinson, 66, opened fire and injured six people. Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise was shot and survived.
According to the report, After the incident, the FBI wrote up an executive intelligence briefing asserting that Hodgkinson carried out the shooting because he wanted to “commit suicide by cop.” The FBI brushed off any connections Hodgkinson had to domestic terrorism.
“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, released on Tuesday, stated.
“Director Patel should initiate a swift review to determine how the FBI arrived at its 2017 decision to categorize Hodgkinson’s act as suicide by cop. We must understand whether the decision was directed from the top down, by then Acting Director Andrew McCabe or other senior leaders, or whether the determination was the result of substandard analysis from the special agents and intelligence analysts who were closest to the case,” it continued.
The report added that the FBI spent years “privately guarding the basis for its determinations by impeding Congressional oversight.”
“Whatever its political purpose, the FBI’s starting position was that the shooter was suicidal, hoping to die by gunfire with police. It appears to the Committee that investigative efforts and intelligence analysis then attempted to reinforce the ‘suicide by cop’ argument despite the clear and contrary facts of the case. The FBI case file makes clear this case was a premeditated assassination attempt on Republican congressmen by a radical, left-wing political extremist, who was seeking to affect the conduct of our government,” the report added.
The report outlined that the FBI neglected to interview key victims and witnesses, failed to create a cohesive timeline of events, and “improperly” classified parts of the case file.
BREAKING 🚨
— Stephanie Myers (@_StephanieMyers) May 6, 2025
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair, Rep. Rick Crawford, says the FBI investigation into the 2017 GOP Congressional baseball practice shooting is inconsistent with their findings. pic.twitter.com/m4MXhIOXnw
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) May 6, 2025
Scalise reacted to the report on X.
“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,” he wrote.
“I encourage Director Patel to adopt the recommendations of the Committee to ensure the intelligence community is rid of bias and to identify who was responsible for the misleading and incorrect conclusions and why, and ensure the FBI gets back to its mission of following the facts, wherever they may lead,” he added.
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. I want to thank… https://t.co/xe2RpoVNfT
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) May 6, 2025
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