Mr. Wenstrup told The Washington Times on Sunday that the FBI changed Hodgkinson’s classification because he and other Republicans had protested that the bureau was minimizing an attack on the country’s legislative branch as the personal act of a troubled man.
“It’s definitely a result of the actions we’ve taken the last few weeks,” Mr. Wenstrup said.
He said FBI Director Christoper Wray telephoned him Friday and said, “I’ve got some news I want to share. We have looked at this again, and we are reclassifying it.”
At the same time, the FBI sent Mr. Wenstrup a letter that said, “The FBI considers the Simpson Field shooting an act of domestic terrorism under the umbrella of domestic violent extremism.”
FBI reclassifies 2017 shooting of GOP lawmakers as domestic terrorism washingtontimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtontimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The bottom line stunned the Hodgkinson-targeted lawmakers assembled in the U.S. Capitol visitors center.
Mr. Hodgkinson was committing “suicide by cop,” the FBI briefer said. In essence, the bureau had relegated the near-mass killings aimed at Washington’s legislative branch to a self-centered personal decision by a leftist activist from Illinois.
“What are you talking about?” Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Ohio Republican, recalls asking the briefer.
“I said ‘if you want to do suicide-by-cop, just pull a gun on the cop,’” he told The Washington Times in an interview. “‘Where are you getting this?’ They just kind of stood by it. We were pretty dismayed.”
Devin Nunes hosts Freedom Festival to promote conservatism in California Follow Us
Question of the Day By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times - Sunday, May 9, 2021
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes on Saturday hosted his inaugural “Freedom Festival,” where conservative stars denounced the liberal media and tech billionaire censors while talking up ways to reach California’s middle 40% of voters.
The speaker lineup included Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and James O’Keefe of Project Veritas.
Mr. Nunes’ central California district sits in the conservative San Joaquin Valley, north of Democratic-dominated Los Angeles County and south of San Francisco. Changing demographics have pushed the country’s most populous state, with the most Electoral College votes, to the left and to a guaranteed win for Democratic presidential candidates.
Newly Released Testimony Shows the FBI Knew the Russia Collusion Story Was Bogus
Senator Lindsey Graham, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has released several hundred more documents from his committee’s investigation into the origins of the FBI investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign for president. Included in the document dump was the transcript of closed testimony given last June by former Justice Department official Dana J. Boente.
Boente was acting deputy attorney general in charge of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation for several months in 2017 and told the committee that he was briefed on the program at least six times.