No undercover FBI agents were at the January 6 US Capitol riot, watchdog reports

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Politics

Updated 1:29 PM EST, Thu December 12, 2024


CNN — A Justice Department watchdog found that there were no undercover FBI employees at the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riot, rejecting speculation from allies of President-elect Donald Trump who have for years suggested that the violence that day was provoked by federal agents.

The DOJ inspector general said Thursday that while no undercover agents were at the rally, 26 confidential human sources – or paid FBI informants – were in Washington that day, none of whom were authorized to break the law themselves or encourage others to do so. The findings are part of a long-awaited report into the FBI’s preparations before the 2021 attack from Trump supporters trying to stop the confirmation of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

The inspector general also found that the FBI did not canvass all its field offices for intelligence from informants who could have helped the US Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies better prepare for protests that day. And after the riot, the report says, the FBI inaccurately told Congress that it had directed the field offices to canvass their informants for information about threats in connection with the January 6. That inaccuracy was unintentional, the inspector general found.

GOP lawmakers, Trump allies and some facing criminal charges because of their alleged actions that day have claimed that law enforcement officials bungled their intelligence sharing or even used paid informants to rile up an otherwise peaceful rally to purposefully create the violent insurrection.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/12/politics/justice-inspector-general-january-6-fbi-report/index.html

[C0RI0LANUS]

1. Breathtaking.

Under J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI spent years tracking and menacing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but D/FBI Christopher Wray didn't deploy FBI SAs wearing MAGA hats to attend the 6 Jan 2021 "Stop the Steal" rally with all of the monitored Social Media.

US Senate Report on the FBI and Homeland Security:

https://www.rules.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Jan%206%20HSGAC%20Rules%20Report.pdf

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. As another Jan. 6 conspiracy theory collapses, JD Vance pretends otherwise

Despite the vice president-elect's claims, the Justice Department's inspector general just shredded a key Jan. 6 conspiracy theory.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3ld6xa52ib22s

The Justice Department's inspector general shredded the "fedsurrection" Jan. 6 conspiracy theory that's popular with far-right Republicans.

For JD Vance to suggest otherwise is ridiculous. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/another-jan-6-conspiracy-theory-collapses-jd-vance-pretends-otherwise-rcna184106

Republican conspiracy theorists are probably quite accustomed to reality discrediting their ideas, but this has nevertheless been a rough week for them. Many GOP officials, for example, were heavily invested in Alexander Smirnov’s dubious claims about President Joe Biden, but the profiteer has since admitted that he made up the allegations.

In case that weren’t enough to ruin Republican conspiracy theorists’ day, the developments in Smirnov’s criminal case coincided with an important inspector general’s report. The New York Times reported:

More than two dozen F.B.I. informants were in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, but contrary to widespread conspiracy theories, bureau officials did not order anyone to break the law as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol that day, according to a report by a Justice Department watchdog released on Thursday. After a nearly four-year investigation, the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, also determined that the F.B.I. had not stationed any undercover agents in the crowd that gathered at the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s electoral victory over Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election.

Horowitz’s full, 88-page report was published online and is available to the public......

The far-right conspiracy theory wasn’t that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants. We already knew this. Some even testified during Jan. 6 criminal cases.

Rather, as Vance really ought to know, the conspiracy theory is that the FBI was somehow responsible for instigating the attack and entrapping Trump’s poor, unsuspecting supporters.

Horowitz’s findings shred these claims. Not only did the IG conclude that the FBI informants weren’t authorized or encouraged to break the law, but the same findings made clear that there were no undercover FBI employees at the Capitol, either.

If Republican conspiracy theorists want to apologize right about now, that’d be great. If they want to enjoy a little quiet time, that’d be understandable. But for Vance to suggest that the inspector general’s findings somehow bolster Republican conspiracy theories is ridiculous.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Trump's effort to move the Jan. 6 goalposts is literally unbelievable

When a Justice Department investigation discredited a key Jan. 6 conspiracy theory, Donald Trump cynically tried to tweak the absurd underlying claim.
https://bsky.app/profile/democracyblue.bsky.social/post/3ldghtrp4w22f

Trump’s effort to move the Jan. 6 goalposts is literally unbelievable
When a Justice Department investigation discredited a key Jan. 6 conspiracy theory, Donald Trump cynically tried to tweak the absurd underlying claim

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-effort-move-jan-6-goalposts-literally-unbelievable-rcna184331

Proponents of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories are probably accustomed to embarrassing setbacks, but last week was especially brutal. The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, unveiled the detailed findings of a four-year investigation, which concluded that while there were FBI informants at the Capitol, no FBI officials were responsible for instigating the attack......

No, I’m just kidding. The president-elect actually published an item to his social media platform, shortly before midnight on Friday night, that cynically tried to move the goalposts.

“Wow! This is big news,” the Republican wrote. “What a disgrace. Let J-6 Hostages out NOW!!!”

This came on the heels of Vice President-elect JD Vance taking a related step, pretending that humiliating news for Jan. 6 conspiracy theorists should actually be seen as evidence that helps Jan. 6 conspiracy theorists.

But these efforts are literally unbelievable. As we discussed last week, too many Republicans and their allies have spent nearly four years pushing the idea that federal law enforcement instigated the insurrectionist assault. The absurd claims grew so common that they were given a name: The “fedsurrection“ narrative was rooted in the idea that it was the FBI, and not Trump’s rabid followers, that was responsible for the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.....

Nevertheless, the incoming president is very likely to reference last week’s revelations when he prepares pardons for Jan. 6 criminals. In fact, as part of Time magazine’s latest cover story on Trump, published last week, the Republican not only said he intends to issue these pardons, he added that he hopes to do so “maybe” within “the first nine minutes” of his second term.

I’m not quite sure how that would work — perhaps he’ll interrupt his own inaugural address? — but time will tell.

As for the nature of Trump's plan, NBC News reported that the president-elect has expressed confusion about key elements — he’s said, for example, that he thinks most or all Jan. 6 defendants were being held in a Washington, D.C., jail, for example, when in fact only a handful of defendants are still being held pretrial — and even some of the Republican’s allies have expressed concern about his “level of awareness of the details.”