A report released by the House Intel Committee today excoriated Andrew McCabe’s politicized FBI for botching the probe into the 2017 Republican Congressional Baseball practice shooting. James Hodgkinson opened fire on members of Congress on June 14 of that year, injuring six people, including Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was critically injured.
Advertisement
We now know about the mishandling of the case, thanks to FBI Director Kash Patel providing the Committee with a 3,000-page case file on the shooting.
The new report “lays out the Committee’s conclusion that, under Acting Director Andrew McCabe in 2017, the FBI used false statements, manipulation of known facts, and biased and butchered analysis to support a narrative that shooter James Hodgkinson committed suicide by cop without any nexus to domestic terrorism.”
More specifically:
- The FBI investigation failed to substantively interview the shooting victims and other eyewitnesses.
- The FBI investigation failed to develop a comprehensive timeline of events.
- The FBI case file was improperly classified, which may have assisted [the] FBI in obfuscating substandard investigative efforts and analysis.
The Committee accused the FBI of having “predetermined” that Hodgkinson’s motive was “suicide by cop,” even though there were no uniformed police officers present at the event. In fact, just seven days into the investigation, the FBI issued a press release claiming there was “no nexus to terrorism,” which the Committee says was based on “false statements and manipulation of known facts.”
Moreover, “the FBI had handwritten notes demonstrating Hodgkinson’s political thoughts and motivations, the FBI had 15 photos taken by Hodgkinson… two months prior when he was casing the baseball practice field.”
“The FBI’s cherry-picking on what to disclose or not to disclose to substantiate a conclusion demonstrates politicization and lack of objectivity that the Committee has observed in other IC [intelligence community] analytic products for high-profile cases,” the Committee said. The FBI later quietly changed the motive from “suicide by cop” to domestic extremism in 2021.
Advertisement
Shortly thereafter, an FBI Executive Intelligence Briefing doubled down on this hasty determination, claiming James Thomas “Tom” Hodgkinson’s “motive to shoot and kill individuals at the congressional baseball practice most aligns with an act of ‘suicide by cop.’” The FBI then spent the next four years privately guarding the basis for its determinations by impeding Congressional oversight. It was not until the FBI was investigating January 6 protesters and the application of Congressional pressure that the FBI changed course with the following statement to the House Appropriations Committee in 2021: “The shooter was motivated by a desire to commit an attack on Members of Congress…This conduct is something that we would today characterize as a domestic terrorism event.”
Isn’t that convenient?
Not only that, but intelligence community personnel “were integral in supporting the FBI’s false narrative.” The report notes that the FBI didn’t even do the basic police work required to investigate a crime. They didn’t interview congressmen who witnessed the shooting, and the file didn’t include a comprehensive timeline or detailed description of the events that day. Nor does it include a description of the shooter’s route as he traveled to the game.
More on the FBI’s lies:
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.” At the time of this press conference, 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. 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.
Advertisement
The Intel Committee said the FBI misled the public when it said that Hodgkinson was carrying a piece of paper with “the names of six Members of Congress.” In fact, it also included physical descriptions of the congressmen he was targeting. The FBI failed to disclose that Hodgkinson had on his person “pages of handwritten notes… demonstrating his political thoughts and motivations.” In one note, the shooter wrote, “A man realizes the political scene has changed drastically over the last 35 years and wants to show the people how to win back the power of the people.”
Despite the flashing red lights indicating that Hodgkinson was a terrorist, a month after the shooting, an FBI Intelligence Briefing concluded that the mass shooting “constitutes a purely criminal matter… and does not meet the threshold to be classified as an act of domestic terrorism.”
The Intel Committee pointed out that “terrorism” and “suicide by cop” are not mutually exclusive, as we learned on Sept. 11, 2001.
To address the FBI’s botched investigation, the Committee recommended:
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.
Advertisement
The Committee also wants to see legislation that “establishes criminal liability for the politicization of intelligence analysis.”
Let’s get on that, gentlemen.
Do you enjoy PJ Media’s conservative reporting taking on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth. Join PJ Media VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!
