According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the United States Park Police “expected a large portion” of those who attended the Save America Rally on January 6th, 2021 to “march to the US Capitol.”
Within the “329 pages of records from United States Park Police related to the January 6, 2021, demonstrations and disturbance at the U.S. Capitol,” Judicial Watch also discovered that “the FBI was monitoring the January 6 demonstrations, including travel to the events by subjects of interest.”
In a statement, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said that “these previously hidden documents show that federal law enforcement was both closely monitoring the First Amendment-protected activities of Americans and had plenty of warning there would be a huge crowd at the US Capitol on January 6.”
In an article on the document release, The Daily Caller reported that “in the days leading up to the attack, the department reportedly knew that the Jan. 6 event ‘would not be like any of the previous protests held in 2020,’ and were aware that white supremacist and armed militia groups were going to cause a ‘strong potential for violence.'”
The documents also show that the Capitol Police were aware that BLM and Antifa counter-protestors intended to “wear MAGA hats backwards, wear camo, and attempt to blend in with MAGA crowd.”
At the Washington Times, Joseph Clark wrote that the Times issued a correction on January 6th after reporting that “XRVision facial recognition software identified Antifa members among rioters who stormed the Capitol,” but points out that Judicial Watch’s documents “confirm that the possibility of agitation by leftist activists was on the radar of law enforcement officials as they prepared for the protests. In the emails, the officials do little to assess the credibility of the tweet.”
