() The FBI had 26 confidential sources at the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, but no undercover FBI agents were on the National Mall that day, according to an 88-page report from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General.
“We found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6,” said the report, contradicting a common belief that federal agents with the FBI may have infiltrated the crowd and encouraged acts of violence and vandalism.
The report is consistent with the past congressional testimony of FBI officials but offers no account as to whether intelligence operatives associated with agencies outside the Justice Department may have been involved in such a “psy-op” infiltration.
The FBI did have 26 confidential sources on the ground during the protests. Some of those sources fed information back to the bureau during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the report. Three of those 26 went to D.C. with the approval of the Washington Field Office to report on possible domestic terrorism subjects who were possibly attending the event.
“Our review concluded that none of these three FBI [confidential human sources] were authorized to enter the Capitol or a restricted area, or to otherwise break the law on January 6, nor was any [confidential human source] directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6,” the report claimed.
Nonetheless, four entered the Capitol, and another 13 entered the restricted area around the Capitol. Nine confidential sources “neither entered a restricted area nor entered the Capitol or otherwise engaged in illegal activity,” according to the report.
“None of the [confidential human sources] who entered the Capitol or a restricted area has been prosecuted to date,” the report added. “The OIG determined that many of these 26 [confidential human sources] had provided information relevant to the January 6 Electoral Certification before the event and that a few CHSs also provided information about the riot as it occurred.”
The report faulted the bureau for not asking field offices to collect information from informants ahead of the rally.
“Despite playing only a supporting role, the FBI recognized the potential for violence and took significant and appropriate steps to prepare for this supporting role, including attempting to identify known domestic terrorism subjects who planned to travel to DC for the January 6 Electoral Certification,” the report said.
The report said what the FBI did was effective in part of its role that day.
“Indeed, after the Capitol was breached by rioters on January 6, the FBI was in a position to deploy tactical assets to help clear the Capitol of protesters and to help USCP secure the perimeter around the Capitol Complex,” the report said. “The FBI told Congress that its posture for January 6 preparations was ‘extraordinary,’ and we found that the FBI effectively carried out its tactical support function on January 6.”
The FBI disputed some of the findings in the report, but it agreed with the recommendations.
“Although the FBI continues to disagree with certain of the factual assertions in the Report regarding the manner of specific steps, and the scope of the canvass undertaken by the FBI in advance of January 6, 2021, a time period during which the Report recognizes as including multiple field offices providing information in response to direction from Washington Field Office and FBI Headquarters, the FBI nonetheless accepts the OIG’s recommendation regarding potential process improvements for future events,” an agency official wrote in a letter to the OIG responding to the report.
