Comer Demands Transparency from FBI About Quietly Revised Crime Statistics

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today is launching an investigation into the Federal of Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) failure to report complete, accurate national crime data. In 2023, the FBI initially reported an estimated 1.7 percent decrease in violent crime in 2022 but later quietly revised the report to show a 4.5 percent increase––a staggering 6.2 percent change. In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Chairman Comer calls on the FBI to provide all documents and communications between the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the White House related to the crime statistics reports issued during the Biden-Harris Administration.

“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s failure to compile and report accurate, complete national crime data,” wrote Chairman Comer. “The FBI’s recent failures to report accurate data draws into question the veracity of the recently released 2023 Crime in the Nation report, which estimated a 3 percent drop in national violent crime. Vice President Harris has touted the 2023 data too, and the media has used it dispel Americans’ real concerns about crime. The Committee is concerned that the FBI’s recent failures to report accurate crime data are politically motivated. The Committee is seeking documents and communications to understand the FBI’s failure to provide Congress and the American people with accurate crime data and whether the 2023 data is, in fact, accurate.”

In 2023, the FBI released its annual Crime in the Nation report, showing an estimated 1.7 percent decrease in violent crime in 2022. The Biden-Harris Administration championed the purported decrease, but there was no decrease. The FBI failed to include in its initial count “an additional 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, 33,459 robberies, and 37,091 aggravated assaults,” resulting in not a decrease but an increase in violent crime of 4.5 percent in 2022. The FBI quietly revised the report to reflect this increase in violent crime but did not publicize it.   

“The FBI’s failure to accurately report crime data and be transparent regarding revisions is unacceptable. To assist the Committee in understanding the FBI’s failure, please provide the requested documents and communications, covering the time period January 20, 2021, to the present, no later than November, 14, 2024,” concluded Chairman Comer.

Read the letter to Director Wray here.