It is by now widely known (even via Wikipedia) that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was heavily involved in the recruiting and planning phases of an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a plot the bureau “uncovered” in October 2020, just in time for the presidential election.
Ken Bensinger and Jessica Garrison of Buzzfeed reported in July that the FBI had “used at least 12 informants in the Michigan kidnapping case,” in which only 14 alleged conspirators had been arrested.
They also reported that the FBI “had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception” and that “the extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.”
The question that is now being raised–by Julie Kelly at American Greatness and Darren Beattie at Revolver–is whether the same M.O. was used in advance of and during the breach of the Capitol in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, leading to nearly 700 arrests so far.
Kelly draws attention to certain “glaring connections” between the FBI’s activities in Michigan and its preparation for the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
According to Kelly, “one week after the charges were announced in the kidnapping plot, the man in charge of the Detroit FBI Field office was promoted to head of the D.C. FBI Field office. Steven M. D’Antuono took over the D.C. shop . . . on October 13, 2020.” (This was also reported by Beattie in June.)
In a Jan. 12 statement, D’Antuono indicated “in the weeks leading up to the January 6 rally,” the FBI already possessed “some intelligence that a number of individuals were planning to travel to the D.C. area with intentions to cause violence.”
Beattie for his part has issued several reports at Revolver since June, according to which it seems increasingly likely that “in order to preempt the fictional possibility of a right-wing insurrection . . . the feds had to become that insurrection.”
- On June 14, Revolver reported on “the unusual volume of unindicted co-conspirators, but a still more unusual feature that the statements and actions of the unindicted co-conspirators in many cases seemed far more egregious and aggressive than those of the persons actually indicted.”
- On June 30, Beattie pointed out that the FBI had not arrested Steward Rhodes, founder of Oath Keepers, and suggested that “1/6 was not the result of an intelligence failure as FBI Director Christopher Wray, the US Senate, and the media tells us. Rather, 1/6 was the result of an intelligence set-up.”
- On Sept. 27, Beattie drew attention to a New York Times report which suggested that “that federal law enforcement had a far greater visibility into the assault on the Capitol, even as it was taking place, than was previously known.”
- On Oct. 24, Revolver compiled a dossier on reported Fed-protected provocateur Ray Epps, who is on video on Jan. 6 telling protestors to that “we need to go to the Capitol,” and whose name “the FBI stealthily removed . . . from its Capitol Violence Most Wanted List on July 1.”
