FBI Mishandled Investigating Congressional Baseball Shooting, House Committee Finds
The FBI mishandled its investigation of the 2017 shooting at a GOP practice one day before the annual Congressional Baseball Game—including not calling the incident domestic terrorism and not interviewing key figures, according to a report released on May 6 by the House Intelligence Committee.
Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) criticized the FBI for withholding the report.
'There's no reasonable or acceptable explanation for why the FBI stonewalled the committee for so long,' he said during a press conference.
'In fact, it's taken so long to get this case file, many of those members at the field on that fateful day are no longer in Congress.'
The
Scalise was shot in the hip and seriously wounded, requiring several surgeries and a lengthy recovery.
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Former Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) was not interviewed despite being at the scene during the shooting.
The shooter, James Hodgkinson, was shot and killed by Capitol Police, who were already on the scene due to Scalise's presence as he was a member of House GOP leadership and therefore afforded a security detail.
The report also found that the bureau did not come up with a timeline of events surrounding the shooting.
Additionally, it said that the FBI incorrectly deemed the shooting was 'suicide by cop' instead of domestic terrorism.
In the
The Intelligence Committee report criticized the press release, saying it failed to include information that would have contracted the 'suicide by cop' narrative.
'To commit suicide by cop, the perpetrator needs to demonstrate hostile intent in the presence of police. In this case, there were no observable police officers present,' according to the report, which noted that the officers were dressed in plain clothes.
Instead, Hodgkinson's motive was 'to impact government policy or the political system by targeting Republicans,' the committee found.
Hodgkinson had a far-left motivation behind the shooting as he sought to kill GOP members of Congress, the report determines.
It said that the FBI's 'conclusions failed to follow the facts, as it reached an unsupported conclusion without completing even the most basic of investigative activities.'
Moreover, the FBI's 'intelligence analysis of Hodgkinson's communications, activities, and behaviors, and associations is strained and logically flawed,' according to the report.
As an example, the FBI cited that Hodgkinson's brother believed that the aim of the shooting was for Hodgkinson to die by suicide by cop.
However, this was merely an opinion and not based on any communications, according to the report.
Another flaw in the FBI's probe, according to the report, was stating that Hodgkinson's list of GOP congressmen was not a 'hit list.'
The list named six people with physical descriptions for each, including size or weight: Brooks, former Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.); and Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), and Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.).
The FBI at the time, said that Hodgkinson's search history included only two names.
The report points out that this is a false premise since there is more than one way to create a hit list, and therefore it does not have to be done by conducting online searches of targets.
Furthermore, it's factually inaccurate since the case file shows that Hodgkinson did do web searches for all six congressmen on the list.
Scalise was made aware of the report by the committee, according to Crawford, who declined to elaborate as he did not want to speak on Scalise's behalf.
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Politico
23 minutes ago
- Politico
The GOP's latest megabill casualties
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Politico
28 minutes ago
- Politico
Kweisi Mfume is pitching an old-school approach to one of House Democrats' highest-profile jobs
Frustrated by Democrats' seniority system, Kweisi Mfume fled the House three decades ago, saying he could do more to advance civil rights from the outside. Now he's back and trying to reap the benefits of seniority at a moment when many in his party are starting to openly question it. The Baltimore native last month surprised many House colleagues by entering the wide-open race to lead Democrats on the high-profile Oversight Committee, seeking to fill the spot vacated by the sudden death of Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly. Into the void jumped a pair of young, ambitious members — Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Robert Garcia of California — as well as a close Connolly ally, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. And then there's Mfume, who at 76 is making no bones about this being the capstone of a long career that included stints leading the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP — jobs he took back in the 1990s. 'I started a long time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth,' Mfume joked in an interview, before describing his old-school approach to legislative relations: 'The first thing you learn is how to count votes, which has never failed me yet,' he said, adding that he would be careful not to alienate colleagues 'by doing something that causes problems for them in their district.' Rather than detail a point-by-point agenda for taking on President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, Mfume said if elected he'd convene the committee's Democrats to decide a course of action. The party, he said, can only move forward with a 'consensus.' That style stands in sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive leadership and a more visible fight with Trump — something the other candidates are clearly heeding: Garcia has tangled with the Justice Department over his criticism of Elon Musk; Crockett has broached the prospect of a Trump impeachment inquiry; and Lynch, as the panel's interim top Democrat, attempted last week to subpoena Musk during a panel hearing. The race also threatens to become a proxy fight for broader questions about age and seniority inside the Democratic Party. House Democrats ousted several aging committee leaders at the end of last Congress as they girded for a fight with the Trump administration — and many in the base were disappointed when Connolly triumphed over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The winner is poised to lead efforts to investigate and thwart the Trump administration if Democrats can retake the House majority next year — and ride herd on a chaotic panel that in recent months has featured intense personal attacks between lawmakers and the display of nude photos. 'It's a street fight every day,' said Rep. Lateefah Simon of California when asked about the panel and what it takes to lead it. 'It's every single day being able to expose the hypocrisy of this administration and to tell the truth.' There was a time when Mfume would have been a natural choice for such a moment. First elected to Baltimore's City Council at the age of 30, he quickly butted heads with legendary Mayor William Donald Schaefer. After longtime Rep. Parren Mitchell retired, Mfume easily won the seat in 1986 and within a few years become a national figure due to his chairmanship of the CBC. Ascending to that role just as Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency, he became an important power broker, forcing key concessions in Clinton's 1993 budget and pushing the White House to restore ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. He also clashed with Clinton at times, including over his decision to pull the nomination of prominent Black legal scholar Lani Guinier to a top Justice Department post. But after Democrats lost their House majority in 1994 — and Mfume lost a quixotic bid to enter the party leadership — he decided two years later to forgo a long climb up the seniority ladder. He instead took the helm at the Baltimore-based NAACP, a job thought to better harness his skills at organizing and oratory. Former Maryland state Sen. Jill Carter said Mfume has long had the 'it factor' and 'charisma' that matters in politics. When Carter ran against Mfume in his 2020 House comeback bid, she got a reminder of how well her rival was known in the district and beyond: 'When some of my people did exit polling, they got the response, 'Oh, we love Jill but, come on, this is Kweisi.'' What's less clear is whether Mfume's reputation in Baltimore, burnished over 45 years in the public eye, makes him the man for the moment as far as his contemporary House colleagues are concerned. He's not known as a partisan brawler, and he said in the interview he doesn't intend to become one. 'There are always going to be fights and disagreements,' he said. 'It's kind of escalated in the last few years to a level that we haven't seen before. I think the main thing is to moderate and to manage the disagreements, because you're not going to cause any of them to go away. How you manage them and how they are perceived by the overall public is what makes a difference.' Mfume is leaning heavily, in fact, on the style and reputation of the man who filled the 7th District seat for the 24 years in between his House stints — the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who served as top Democrat and then chair of Oversight during Trump's first term and is still spoken of in reverent terms inside the caucus. Mfume concedes that Cummings might have been the better communicator — he 'had a little more preacher in him than I do' — but said they share a similar lofty approach to politics. Like Cummings, he suggested prescription drug prices might be a committee priority. What Mfume is unlikely to have is the official support of the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful force in intracaucus politics. With two members in the race — Crockett also belongs — Mfume said he does not expect a formal CBC endorsement after an interview process Wednesday. But he still expected to draw support from the bloc — especially its more senior members. Other factors complicate Mfume's candidacy. One is age: He is a year older than Connolly was when he was elected to lead Oversight Democrats last year. For those who prize seniority, Lynch has actually spent more time on the panel. And his 2004 departure from the NAACP was marred by controversy: The Baltimore Sun reported the executive committee of the group voted not to extend his contract under threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit; the NAACP later paid the woman who complained a $100,000 settlement. Mfume strenuously denied any wrongdoing, but while the episode has not emerged as a major issue in the Oversight race, some Democrats have privately expressed reservations about elevating a leader with personal baggage to potentially lead investigations of Trump. 'There's never been one person to corroborate that one allegation — not one,' Mfume said. About the payment, he said, 'I found out about it, quite frankly, after it happened.' Much of the Democratic Caucus remains undecided ahead of the June 24 secret-ballot vote. Candidates will first go before Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full caucus. 'I think that you have a situation where Mfume and Steve Lynch are getting support from folks who put seniority at top, and maybe the other two candidates would probably lean toward members who are newer, and then you got a whole host of folks that's in the middle. And I think that's where the battle is to see where they fall,' said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.). One younger member said he was swayed by Mfume's experience. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is 48 and had weighed his own bid, said that while other candidates were compelling, the Baltimorean had a 'leg up.' 'Kweisi shows me pictures of him with Nelson Mandela,' he said. 'I was like, I'm not going to run against Nelson Mandela's best friend.'
Time Magazine
29 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
‘Went Too Far': Elon Musk Says He Regrets Some Posts About Trump
'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,' Elon Musk posted on his social media platform X early Wednesday. 'They went too far.' Musk and Trump, who were once almost inseparable allies, were engaged in a public and vitriolic war of words last week. But the fierce hostilities between the man with the most money in the world and the man with the mightiest military appear to be cooling. The statement of remorse by Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump in 2024, comes as observers have noticed another shift in his tone on social media toward the Administration. In retweets and replies, Musk signaled support for Trump's approach toward the protests in Los Angeles, including sharing multiple of the President's recent posts from Truth Social. He also responded with a heart emoji to a video of Trump telling reporters on Monday that he wished Musk well and that they had a 'good relationship.' It's a sharp contrast to how the two powerful men discussed each other last week, after Musk left his official government role and ramped up his criticisms of Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' massive tax-and-spending legislative package that is stumbling through Congress. 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore,' Trump told reporters at the White House on June 5. 'I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot.' On Truth Social, Trump said at the time that Musk ' went CRAZY!' and threatened that the 'easiest way to save money' would be 'to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' In turn, Musk alleged that the Administration was holding back the public release of so-called Epstein Files because Trump is implicated in them, and he endorsed a message that suggested 'Trump should be impeached' and Vance 'should replace him.' Those posts have since been deleted.
