WASHINGTON — The FBI bungled the investigation into the 2017 shooting that wounded House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and others, downplaying the attacker's leftwing political motivations, a GOP-led congressional committee reported Tuesday.

Republicans on the committee said criminal charges should be pursued against agents and others involved with the conclusions the FBI initially reached. Democrats pushed back, saying no evidence showed that those investigating the shooting were swayed by political considerations.

Newly installed FBI director Kash Patel released the agency's documents related to the shooting investigation to the committee. He was sworn-in as director on Feb. 21.

“The FBI used false statements, manipulation of known facts, and biased and butchered analysis to support a narrative that (shooter James T. "Tom") Hodgkinson committed suicide by cop without any nexus to domestic terrorism,” concluded GOP members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence after reviewing 2,500 pages of the FBI’s case file.

Republicans on the committee said criminal charges should be pursued against FBI agents and others.

Scalise, R-Jefferson agreed, saying in a statement: “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."

Scalise thanked Patel and committee members for "finally getting to the truth of the matter: This was a deliberate and planned act of domestic terrorism toward Republican members of Congress."

Scalise continued, "I encourage director Patel to adopt the recommendations of the Committee to ensure the intelligence community is rid of bias and to identify who was responsible for the misleading and incorrect conclusions and why, and ensure the FBI gets back to its mission of following the facts, wherever they may lead.”

Democratic representatives, who make up a minority of the investigatory House panel, agreed that the FBI could have done more faster. But they said there was no clear evidence that the “delayed determination to classify the attack as domestic terrorism” was the result of political motivation, and they opposed going after FBI agents criminally.

The FBI's final conclusion was that Hodgkinson committed an act of domestic terrorism.

"The minority strongly disagrees with the recommendation to consider criminal charges against intelligence analysts. Nothing in the report or in the record provides any predicate for such a proposal, and even the discussion threatens to chill objective analysis and candid assessments," the Democrats stated.

A shooting at baseball practice

Scalise was shot during a June 14, 2017 practice of the Republican team for the annual Congressional baseball game with House Democrats at a public field in Alexandria, Virginia, which is about six miles from the U.S. Capitol.

Hodgkinson, 66, was a Belleville, Illinois, resident with a history of domestic abuse and support for left-wing causes. He opened fire during the practice, hitting and almost killing Scalise. He also shot U.S. Capitol Police officer Crystal Griner, congressional aide Zack Barth and Tyson Foods lobbyist Matt Mika.

Hodgkinson apparently was motivated by opposition to the agenda being sought by President Donald Trump during his first term. He didn’t flee and was brought down after a 10-minute shootout with Capitol Police, who were there to protect Scalise, and the Alexandria Police Department. He later died in the hospital from multiple gunshots.

The FBI in 2021 changed their preliminary "suicide by cop" conclusion – based on Hodgkinson not being affiliated with any extremist organizations – and called the shooting an act of domestic terrorism, based on his “personalized violent ideology.”

What the report found

The first flaw the committee cited was that the FBI didn’t properly identify the event as a baseball game practice. But they also found fault in the FBI not substantively interviewing Mo Brooks, then a Republican representative from Alabama, whose name appeared on a list of six Republican congresspersons found on a piece of paper in Hodgkinson’s car. Other witnesses also were not interviewed, according to the report.

Republicans also claimed that FBI initially downplayed Hodgkinson's writings on social media and interviews with the shooter's family along with frequent comments on Facebook, which demonstrated his political motivations.

“Whatever its political purpose, the FBI’s starting position was that the shooter was suicidal, hoping to die by gunfire with police. It appears to the Committee that 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 stated.

Conservative Republicans recently have argued that the intelligence community has been “weaponized” in their work to forward a liberal agenda and to target conservatives.

The Republican majority on the committee recommended legislation to establish criminal liability for “the politicization of intelligence analysis.” That would include “senior agency officials” who direct civil servants “to violate analytic standards” as well as civil servants who “manipulate raw intelligence” for political purposes.

The committee recommended Patel initiate a swift review that addresses why the “FBI chose not to conduct substantive interviews of all the victims and other eyewitnesses.” And then Patel should “take actions necessary to achieve accountability for any misconduct.”

The Democratic minority objected, countering the reports include no evidence that political considerations played a role in the investigation. Also, there was no evidence presented that any threats were raised that would chill objective analysis about the shooting.