Report Shreds FBI For Minimizing Congressional Shooter’s Motives

The FBI used “false statements, manipulation of known facts, and biased and butchered analysis” to claim that the man who shot Republicans while they were practicing baseball in 2017 had no connection to domestic terrorism, according to a new report.

“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,” said Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was shot during the attack, in a press release. 

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released the report on May 6, explaining that the FBI “completely botched” its investigation into the 2017 shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice. The assailant, who shot and injured Scalise and four others, was Democrat activist and Bernie Sanders volunteer James Hodgkinson, as The Federalist reported at the time. 

In its ensuing investigation, the FBI was quick to dismiss the shooter’s motives. As The Federalist’s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway wrote, agents admitted the attacker was a radical leftist who hated Republicans, but suggested he had no particular target, was acting alone, and could have “spontaneous[ly]” launched the attack. They even went so far as to claim there was “no nexus to terrorism.”

The recent report suggests otherwise. It found that the FBI “failed to substantively interview the shooting victims and other eyewitnesses” and “failed to develop a comprehensive timeline of events.” Furthermore, its “case file was improperly classified, which may have assisted FBI in obfuscating substandard investigative efforts and analysis,” according to a House Intelligence release.

“FBI’s case file includes fact after fact indicating Hodgkinson was carrying out a plan to impact government policy or the political system by targeting Republicans. That was Hodgkinson’s motive, not simply to die by a cop’s bullet,” the report reads. “[O]ther evidence within the FBI case file supports a conclusion that Hodgkinson was a domestic terrorist.”

The report found that the shooter was a “radical, left-wing political extremist.” Hodgkinson was “upset” by Trump’s 2016 victory, and he participated in a concealed carry class. He “told friends and family they may not see him again,” left Illinois with guns, headed for Washington, D.C., “to protest,” “cased” the baseball field for two months, and then made sure that Republican congressmen were present before launching the attack.

While the FBI claimed he was “not a member of any extremist organization,” it turned a blind eye to his membership in a Facebook group called “Terminate The Republican Party,” which celebrated the shooting.

Investigators also found a list of six congressmen in Hodgkinson’s vehicle, which the FBI claimed “does not appear to be a ‘hit list.’” The list included notes to help identify each congressman.

The FBI also failed to disclose the shooter’s notes until recently, a failure the report said caused “grave concern.” Hodgkinson said he “wanted to make a statement in my life before the end” and called to treat “elected congressmen of the republican party” with “despicable hatred.” 

The report found that the FBI determined the shooter’s motive was “suicide by cop” “before gathering and reviewing all evidence,” the case file makes clear this was a “premeditated assassination attempt on Republican congressmen,” and the FBI “withheld information” to debunk this narrative. The FBI also inexplicably changed its analysis of the motive from “suicide by cop” to “domestic violent extremism” in 2021.

Republican Rep. Rick Crawford, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, expressed concern over the FBI’s behavior.

“Unfortunately, this report confirms that under previous FBI leadership, the Bureau completely botched the investigation into this politically motivated attack which threatened the lives of numerous Republican Members of Congress, staff, and bystanders,” Crawford said in the release. “It is unacceptable and alarming that the FBI would approach any investigation within its purview with this complete disregard and lack of investigative integrity.”

Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said that “it is clear why the FBI was holding this case file so close.”

“[T]he American people deserve a government that is accountable and transparent. Oversight of the intelligence community must ensure those in that community are held to the same standard,” Jackson said in the release. “I look forward to Director [Kash] Patel uncovering how political bias found its way into this high-profile case.”

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.