A scathing new report from the House Intelligence Committee reveals that the FBI deliberately downplayed and misclassified critical evidence in the 2017 congressional baseball shooting that targeted Republican lawmakers.
The shooter, James Hodgkinson, who wounded House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and several others, was a Bernie Sanders supporter and a member of online groups like “Terminate the Republican Party.” But the FBI, under then-Acting Director Andrew McCabe, brushed aside this political motive, labeling the incident as “suicide by cop” in its original findings—even though the attacker left a handwritten list of GOP targets and engaged in months of threatening behavior.
Committee Chairman Rick Crawford slammed the bureau, saying, “This report confirms the FBI completely botched the investigation… It is unacceptable and alarming.”
According to the report, the FBI ignored or suppressed evidence that clearly indicated Hodgkinson’s far-left political agenda. He had called GOP members of Congress with hostile messages, sent angry letters to newspapers, and was active in extremist online circles. But the bureau withheld six out of seven statements revealing those motives and never interviewed key witnesses.
Despite this overwhelming evidence, the FBI still told lawmakers in a 2017 intelligence briefing that Hodgkinson “most aligns” with a suicide scenario, saying the attacker didn’t appear politically motivated. Incredibly, the FBI later updated its assessment in 2021 to categorize the act as domestic extremism—but again, with no new information to justify the reversal.
The committee’s report blasts the agency’s flawed process, suggesting that officials may have tried to protect their preferred narrative. “It appears… investigative efforts and intelligence analysis then attempted to reinforce the ‘suicide by cop’ argument despite the clear and contrary facts of the case,” the report reads.
Critics argue that had Hodgkinson been a right-wing extremist, the case would have received an entirely different treatment—and been used as a rallying cry for gun control and political crackdowns.
In a chilling detail, the report confirms that Hodgkinson carried a list of Republican lawmakers in his pocket and had scoped out the practice site ahead of the attack. Yet Pelosi and other Democratic leaders at the time refused to acknowledge any ideological motive, instead blaming GOP “rhetoric” for inciting violence.
At the scene, Hodgkinson opened fire on a group of Republican members of Congress practicing for a charity baseball game, seriously wounding Scalise and injuring others before being shot by police. Despite the severity and apparent planning, the FBI’s 2017 conclusion glossed over his ideology in favor of a psychological explanation.
The FBI has not responded to the report, but the House Intelligence Committee is now calling for additional oversight and internal accountability. Lawmakers want to ensure political bias never again interferes with national security investigations.
This isn’t the first time questions have been raised about the FBI’s conduct under former leadership. But this report marks the most detailed and damning look yet at how partisan politics may have infected a life-or-death investigation into an attempted political assassination.
For many in Congress and across the country, it’s confirmation that the FBI prioritized spin over truth—putting political optics ahead of justice for the victims.
