FBI’s years long stonewalling on 2017 congressional softball shooting is over: Patel

The FBI under Andrew McCabe labeled the 2017 congressional baseball game shooting "suicide by cop" rather than domestic terrorism. Left-wing activist James Hodgkinson specifically targeted Republicans for murder, but the FBI under Chris Wray reversed that decision years later, but stonewalled disclosure. Now, Kash Patel is promising transparency.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced this week that he had handed over to Congress long-sought bureau records related to the 2017 congressional baseball game shooting following years of House Republicans arguing the bureau was stonewalling on why it had labeled the attack “suicide by cop” instead of domestic terrorism.

James Hodgkinson, an extreme left-wing activist living out of a van in northern Virginia opened fire on Republicans at an Alexandria baseball field on June 14, 2017 after asking GOP congressmen who had left the practice early if the players were Republicans or Democrats. GOP Congressman Steve Scalise nearly died as a result of the attack. Before opening fire, Hodgkinson reportedly asked if the players on the field were Republicans, and then proceeded with his armed assault.

Republican congressmen have for years harshly criticized the 2017 decision by the FBI, led in an acting capacity at the time by Andrew McCabe, not to label the shooting by Hodgkinson as domestic terrorism despite his targeting of elected Republican leaders as they practiced for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. The FBI had instead dubbed the attack “suicide by cop” — a position the bureau refused to reverse until 2021, and a position the FBI has never fully explained.

“I can report that as of 30 minutes ago, the FBI has provided the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence all requested documents related to the Congressional Baseball Game shooting in 2017,” Patel declared on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Wednesday. “These are documents sought by Capitol Hill officials for almost 8 years. Providing these documents was one of our top priorities in delivering a new FBI era of transparency. Thank you to the committee and Chairman Rep. Rick Crawford for your partnership in getting Americans the truth.”

Current Status: FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino

March 31, 2025 | Sundance

FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino both overlook key issues.

I’ll explain after a review of this update from Deputy FBI Director Bongino (as shared on his Twitter Account):

“In the best interests of openness and transparency I’ll be posting regular information updates on this account.
-The Director and I are working through many of the transparency issues. We are focused on getting this done the right way, and as quickly and efficiently as possible. Many of these cases involve victims, both young and old, who we will not allow to be re-victimized by a rushed and sloppy effort.
-We are engaging with all of our personnel on transparency, while simultaneously dealing with a number of serious threats to the Homeland, our children, our economy, and our infrastructure. We absolutely cannot afford to miss any threats in those spaces. Multi-tasking isn’t an option here.
-I am well aware of some of the early concerns expressed on social media about the speed of change. I understand. But I’ll state again, if you think I upended my prior job and lifestyle to take a vacation in FBI headquarters, then I can’t help you. You’ve already decided, despite logic and reason, that all is lost. It is not. Not even close. Because you don’t see things happening in live time, does not mean change isn’t happening. Not even close. You will see results, and not every result will please everyone, but you will absolutely see results. Just watch.
-God bless America, and all those who defend Her.
-Dan” (source)

Does this explain the FBI delay in executing an immediate presidential directive? Of course not.

Here’s the problem.

Kash Patel and Dan Bongino both fail to understand the severity of the compromise underneath them.

Hence the “95% honorable” quote by Patel recently (interview with Gowdy).

♦ The core issue is that institutional corruption is the status of the FBI.

That is challenging to deal with and simply cannot be addressed (in any reasonable timeframe, or effect) from the top of the leadership pyramid.

The various downstream field offices of the same institution (there are hundreds) will keep Patel/Bongino flush with busy work and positive investigative outcomes for them to announce on television. [see VA recently] That approach purposefully satiates a reviewing audience yet leaves the process under them without oversight.

Corrupt FBI officials continue operations as needed (influence selling, evidence burying, pay-to-play investigative outcomes, DC monitoring, money laundering, trafficking, drugs and generally willful blindness to their outside group partners) and simultaneously push specific attention-grabbing info up the ladder toward leadership offices in DC.

[As decades of top-down corruption took over, it slowly permeated the field offices. Most of the really good FBI officials; those who did not want to follow a path paved with the need to join the internal corruption; took up FBI positions in foreign countries. The good guys, the SMEs are overseas now, having long left the domestic rank and vile behind them.]

Kash Patel and Dan Bongino would likely make excellent FBI special operation compliance officers and internal auditors. That’s where the real impact can be delivered [think Elliot Ness approach].

However, as leaders of the institution, the function of their role – as outwardly prestigious as it might seem, essentially isolates them with busy work. They must assign the role of compliance and audit review below them, to the same internal silo operators who have previously been identified as working within a corrupted institution.

You might note that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noticed this need very quickly, because he was/is a subject matter expert in large institutional leadership. Bessent has experience, Patel and Bongino do not.

Secretary Bessent hired/promoted/moved the IRS whistleblowers into strategic position; to become the heads of an internal compliance and audit team, reporting almost exclusively to Bessent himself.

Bongino and Patel would have been good in similar roles within the FBI organization. However, as heads of the agency they can affect very little operational change. Yes, they can steer the ship, but it is the chief engineer who determines the speed of the vessel. The mechanics within the FBI will simply control the speed and wait out the leadership.

Kash and Dan will then play a long game of whac-a-mole, removing each identified agent stalling as they are discovered. This will take more years than they have.

Contrast that FBI approach (Patel, saying everyone is awesome) with Treasury (Bessent, saying there’s an institutional problem here), and you will understand the visible absence of accountability.

♦ The issue is not Patel or Bongino’s intent or motivation. The problem is their ability.

So far, the duo has not publicly admitted the severity of the corruption they sit atop; let alone announce a plan to deal with it. Ergo the intellectually honest person who understand the silo operations, only expect soundbites and pretenses.

Or, think of the problem like President Trump and Elon Musk (DOGE) to the total executive branch. President Trump is the tip-top of the silo. Elon Musk and DOGE are the compliance/audit officers, reviewing each agency – taking action and reporting back to the principal, President Trump.

Both President Trump and Elon Musk are familiar leading massive organizations (high competence, high motivation). However, even with their incredible large institutional skillset, both Trump and Musk need to break down the responsibilities using DOGE. Musk hires highly competent highly motivated DOGE members to do the actual compliance and audits.

Again, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino do not possess the same executive leadership skills (they are low competence, high motivation). The pair of FBI directors need high-direction and high-support to overcome their competency challenge.

If the institutional corruption within the FBI was being addressed, we would not need to be told the institutional corruption within the FBI was being addressed. We would be able to visibly see it.

Ex. If Treasury was saying 95% of IRS employees were honorable and good, Secretary Bessent would not be removing tens-of-thousands of IRS agents.

The FBI reportedly has around 48,000 agents/employees.

Step one begins as President Trump, Elon Musk and Scott Bessent each noted. First, admitting there’s an institutional problem. Patel and Bongino are denying they have an institutional problem.

I/We want to see Kash Patel and Dan Bongino succeed. However, it takes large system executive leadership skills to execute any effective reform strategy. Patel and Bongino would be excellent compliance officers, unfortunately that’s not the role they have been assigned to.

That’s the problem.

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