GOP Senator Slams ‘Failed’ FBI After NY Post Reporter Stakes Out New Orleans Suspect’s House Before Agents Even Arrive

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) slammed the “failed” FBI after New York Post reporter Jennie Taer set up outside the New Orleans attack suspect’s house in Texas long before law enforcement agents.

The identity of the deceased suspect who carried out the premeditated vehicle-based attack and killed 15 people was revealed as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar by NOLA.com, based on information from law enforcement sources on Wednesday. The suspect is a U.S. citizen and a veteran.

After the FBI released a statement saying that its specialist investigation teams were on the ground at the home, Taer took to X to call out the agency, explaining that her team had been on the ground long before any agents turned up.

“The FBI didn’t show up to the NOLA suspect’s address until 1pm today. We were on scene before. No one came out of the home or answered the door,” she wrote.

Staking out the “squalid” property before Harris County Sheriff’s officers could implement a security cordon, Taer published an exclusive report detailing how the suspect was “living in a run-down trailer park where he kept sheep and goats in the yard.” She further noted that the home was “just blocks away from the local mosque.”

Following Taer’s tweet, Blackburn took to social media to criticize the agency’s response time, writing: “The fact that a reporter has better intel than the FBI tells us all we need to know.”

“The FBI has failed its core mission,” she added.