WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Representatives Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) and Ted Lieu (CA-33), members of the House Judiciary Committee with oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray to determine the existence of an investigation disclosed by President Trump into a plane “loaded with thugs.”

During an August 31 interview with Fox News, President Trump said, “We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. They’re on a plane.” When pressed as to where the plane was, the President replied, “I’ll tell you sometime, but it’s under investigation now.”

“It seems that President Trump is stoking fears about the peaceful protests taking place around the country and pushing wild conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact.  Such rhetoric has led to violence, including the murder of two protestors,” wrote the Members. “If the President is using the FBI to pursue conspiracy theories, that would be a gross misuse of federal law enforcement and taxpayer dollars.”

Last week, a 17-year-old man traveled across state lines with a long gun to serve as a self-appointed militiaman in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he shot and killed two people protesting against police violence.

On Tuesday, the President again spoke about the alleged incident on a plane saying, “a person was on a plane, said there were about 6 people like that person, more or less, and what happened is the entire plane filled up with the looters, the anarchists, rioters, people that were obviously looking for trouble and the person felt very uncomfortable on the plane.”

PolitiFact stated that “neither Trump nor federal agencies provided any further information to substantiate the incident.”

Text of the letter can be found here.