House Republicans are demanding the FBI conduct an internal investigation into why the bureau designated the 2017 congressional baseball shooting as “suicide by cop.”
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, along with 15 lawmakers who were on the 2017 Republican Congressional Baseball Team as well as other Republicans on the assailant’s potential “hit list,” sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting a full investigation of what led the bureau to conclude the “suicide by cop” designation.
On June 14, 2017, 66-year-old James Hodgkinson fired off at least 70 rounds with a semi-automatic long rifle at the Republican baseball team that was practicing on a field in Alexandria, Virginia.
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U.S. Capitol Police officers who were part of Scalise’s detail returned fire back at Hodgkinson, while Wenstrup, who is a doctor, tended to the wounded.
The incident left Scalise critically injured and three others on the field hurt.
Police handcuffed Hodgkinson after they fired three rounds into him. He subsequently died from gunshot injuries at George Washington University Hospital.
According to the report written by the commonwealth’s attorney for the city of Alexandria, Hodgkinson was seen by neighbors going back to April 2017, months before the attack, “casing” the area.
A supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hodgkinson, moved to Washington, D.C., in March 2017 from Illinois after he told his family he planned to “protest” and “talk about taxes.”
Hodgkinson had a notepad that contained a piece of paper with three Republican lawmakers who were members of the House Freedom Caucus: Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, and then-Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona.
Sanders denounced the attacker, who had social media profiles containing anti-conservative statements and who “apparently” volunteered for his campaign. The Vermont senator stated he was “sickened” by this “despicable act.”
Nevertheless, on Nov. 16, 2017, FBI personnel verbally briefed members of the congressional baseball team that Hodgkinson’s motivation for opening fire was “suicide by cop.”
“We fear that the FBI’s inability or unwillingness to fully investigate this shooting as a matter of domestic extremism four years ago leaves a blind spot within the Bureau in fully assessing risks we face today. The FBI telling us that James Hodgkinson’s attempt to assassinate dozens of Members of Congress was simply ‘suicide by cop’ does nothing to alleviate this concern,” the lawmakers wrote to Wray.
“The need for the FBI to review its original conclusion is heightened by the determinations by the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Alexandria, as well as recent reports from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), clearly show that this was a domestic violent extremism event.”
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They added, “That is why we ask that you review the FBI’s findings of the 2017 attack, interview all witnesses who were present that morning, update the conclusions of the FBI’s investigation, if warranted, and publicly release the findings. We also urge you to conduct an internal investigation into how the FBI reached the conclusion of ‘suicide by cop’ and who was behind that process and determination.”
