Two House Republicans excoriated the FBI on Thursday, demanding answers from the bureau over the revelations he quietly adjusted some of its crime statistics for 2022 to hide that crime has increased rather than decreased.

last year, originally estimated office that violent crime fell 2.1 percent nationally in 2022 compared to 2021. But last September, the FBI quietly released a review showing that violent crime actually rose 4.5 percent in that time interval.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Crime and Federal Government Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) sent a scathing letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday blasting the bureau for failing to been honest about the major adjustment.

“The FBI has not released its revision of violent crime data since 2022, and the only way to see this change is to download the FBI’s updated crime data and compare it to the previous year,” Jordan and Biggs wrote.

That revision went not mentioned in a September press release boasting a 3.0% decrease in violent crime nationally during 2023 compared to 2022. Significantly, this assumed decrease was based on corrected statistics about violent crime growth in 2022.

“The original 2022 figures, before they were corrected, were announced as ‘historic lows’ in the crime rate. Despite having true data, the FBI never issued a clarification, while the incorrect statistics were used to promote a false narrative,” the lawmakers added.

“The FBI’s review of violent crime data confirms what our surveillance has shown: The Biden-Harris crime epidemic continues to escalate, and far-left and local policymakers are positioning themselves.”

The statistics were used during the 2024 presidential election cycle as the basis for numerous fact checks, including during the Sept. 10 debate between President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The methodology of the crime tracking bureau has changed. In 2021, the FBI switched to a new crime data collection system – the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), retiring its Summary Reporting System (SRS).

NIBRS reports much more specific crime information than SRS, however, reporting rates by law enforcement have declined as municipalities apparently struggle with the transition.

This has led many crime experts to point out that the data is incomplete. Of a single analysisthe bureau lacks data from about 20 percent of key local agencies and the reporting rate fell below 70 percent in 2021 for the first time in at least two decades.

The Crime Prevention Research Center first reported the FBI’s quiet adjustment in a story that was published by RealClearInvestigations.

Jordan and Biggs are asking for all documentation and communication related to the FBI’s “process to update” the data, as well as details of the actions the bureau took to update the public on the review.

The office has until Nov. 21 to transfer that information and hold a staff briefing on the issue.

In the letter, Jordan and Biggs said they want to know the process the FBI uses to update its statistics, details about underreporting by municipalities, how often the bureau has corrected statistics from previous years, and steps taken to secure data from 2023. is accurate.

“The FBI’s failure to be transparent about violent crime data continues to erode the trust of the American people and raises questions about the agency’s procedures used to track and update Uniform Crime Reporting Data,” the Republican congressmen added.

“Americans have known all along what the FBI is now reporting — crime continues to rise across the country and Americans do not feel safe in their communities.”

The Post has reached out to the FBI for comment.

Jordan and Biggs’ mission to Wray came two days after Trump’s presidential victory.

Trump, 78, nominated Wray for a 10-year term as FBI director in 2017, but Republicans in Congress — and Trump himself — have grown disillusioned with his leadership throughout the Harris-Biden administration.