The FBI privately informed GOP congressmen in November 2017 that the bureau determined the baseball field shooting in Virginia that wounded Whip Steve Scalise was “suicide by cop,” a lawmaker revealed on Thursday.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Ohio Republican, broke the news to the public during a House Intelligence Committee meeting, saying the Republicans were alerted of the development approximately five months after a gunman opened fire at the congressional baseball practice in mid-June 2017. Wenstrup’s comments last week were directed at FBI Director Christopher Wray, and his statements led some of his colleagues to condemn the determination.
“Much to our shock that day, the FBI concluded that this was a case of the attacker seeking suicide by cop,” Wenstrup said, according to Politico. “Director, you want suicide by cop, you just pull a gun on a cop. It doesn’t take 136 rounds. It takes one bullet. Both the DHS and the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] published products labeling this attack as a domestic violent extremism event, specifically targeting Republican members of Congress. The FBI did not.”
California Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat, chimed in to back Wenstrup’s criticism.
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“I actually would like to associate my — your comments with my interest in wanting to pursue that as well, Dr. Wenstrup,” she said during the hearing.
Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat, seconded Speier’s remarks.
Wenstrup penned a letter Thursday to Wray, who became the bureau’s director in August 2017, asserting that the FBI’s conclusion “defies logic and contradicts the publicly known facts about the perpetrator and the attack.”
“The FBI respectfully refers you to the previously issued comments on this matter, and we decline to comment further,” an FBI spokesperson told the Washington Examiner when asked for comment.
In June 2017, a man identified as James Hodgkinson of Illinois opened fire on the Republican baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, after allegedly asking a bystander if the players were Republicans or Democrats. Hodgkinson struck Scalise in the hip, hit a lobbyist in the chest, and injured two U.S. Capitol Police officers in the spree. Scalise required multiple surgeries before returning to Congress after he nearly bled to death on the field.
Hodgkinson, an avid liberal, was shot dead by responding law enforcement.
Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, expressed his displeasure with the FBI determination in a tweet on Thursday.
“I was shot by a deranged Leftist who came to the baseball field with a list of Congressional Republicans to kill,” he wrote. “This was NOT ‘suicide by cop.’ End of story.”
Alexandria’s top prosecutor released a report in October 2017 that concluded the shooting was “terrorism” and the findings establish that fact “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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“The evidence in this case establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect, fueled by rage against Republican legislators, decided to commit an act of terrorism as that term is defined by the Code of Virginia,” the report said. “The suspect, using a lawfully-purchased assault rifle and handgun, ambushed a peaceful assembly of people practicing baseball and began to fire indiscriminately in an effort to kill and maim as many people as possible.”
Days after the shooting, the FBI, however, said there was no “nexus to terrorism.”
Jerry Dunleavy contributed to this report.
