GOP Leaders Accuse FBI of Downplaying Political Motives in 2017 Scalise Shooting Investigation

A recently issued congressional report criticizes the FBI for mismanaging its probe into the matter. 2017 shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice where House Majority Leader Steve Scalise suffered severe injuries.

On Tuesday, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, led by Republicans, released its report , saying the FBI ignored evidence of political motivation and initially misclassified the attack as “suicide by cop” rather than domestic terrorism.

The shooter, James Hodgkinson, opened fire on June 14, 2017, at the Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia, wounding Scalise, two U.S. Capitol Police officers, and a congressional staffer before being fatally shot by police.

According to the committee report, Hodgkinson had a documented history of anti-Republican views, had conducted online searches of Republican lawmakers, and was a member of a Facebook group titled “Terminate The Republican Party.” The committee criticized the FBI for initially dismissing the attack as an act without political motivation.

“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 states.

In a press release , Scalise said, “This report definitively shows the FBI completely mishandled the investigation… ignoring crucial and obvious facts in order to sell a false narrative that the shooting was not politically motivated.” He thanked current FBI Director Kash Patel for providing transparency to the committee and urged the agency to adopt the committee’s recommendations.

While Republicans on the committee sharply criticized the FBI, the minority members agreed the shooting was domestic terrorism but disagreed with recommendations that intelligence analysts face potential criminal liability for analytic failures, saying such measures could chill objective assessments.

The FBI formally reclassified the attack as domestic terrorism in 2021, four years after the shooting.

The committee’s recommendations include an internal FBI review to determine why the original conclusion was reached, enhanced accountability and exploring whether domestic extremists are increasingly radicalizing toward political violence.

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