(Ken Silva, Headline USA) For more than five years, the “Sedition Hunters,” the shadowy group of online sleuths that used controversial facial recognition technology to help the FBI track down Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill protestors, were portrayed by mainstream media as “volunteers” who were helping the U.S. government for patriotic reasons.
But new documents prove otherwise. Records from the FBI show that the “Sedition Hunters” received more than $150,000 for their efforts—many of which were constitutionally dubious. The records also reportedly show that some of the so-called Sedition Hunters were apparently foreigners, according to Just the News, which reviewed the records.
Biden's FBI paid anti-Trump 'Sedition Hunters' as informants in J6, Arctic Frost probes, memos show https://t.co/xa7qao13DW
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) January 21, 2026
“[A] late January 2021 email from the FBI’s Washington field office stated that ‘we have a sedition hunter from the United Kingdom running facial recognition software’ with the tipster telling the bureau that this UK-based so-called sedition hunter ‘just found this possible match’ to an alleged January 6 suspect a few minutes prior, sharing the picture with the FBI,” Just the News reported Wednesday.
FBI Director Kashyap Patel told Just the News that the FBI’s relationship with the “Sedition Hunters” was inappropriate. Most of the officials involved in the scheme have been fired, but the FBI is reportedly conducting an audit to make sure the bureau hasn’t missed anyone.
Along with helping hunt J6ers, at least one of the so-called Sedition Hunters was reportedly paid for assisting in the Justice Department’s “Arctic Frost” operation, which investigated Trump and his allies for contesting the 2020 election.
A June 2023 FBI memo cites a “payment for information in the amount of $20,000.00 to [REDACTED] for information provided in support of captioned investigation.”
NEW: Jack Smith paid an FBI informant (CHS) to get dirt on Trump in Arctic Frost investigation pic.twitter.com/NGDP6PIFbS
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) January 10, 2026
The memo was accompanied by an email, in which an agent wrote to the DOJ: “As discussed, request your office’s concurrence in our proposed payment of $20,000 for [the FBI informant’s] provision of information in support of the investigation.”
Arctic Frost documents have shown that at least 156 individuals were subjected to the secret probe.
The Sedition Hunters’ bias was evident by the group openly lobbying the DOJ to arrest more J6ers in 2024.
“It appears that the department and the FBI are not on pace to arrest an alarmingly large percentage [of those] who committed crimes at the Capitol on January 6 but have not been charged yet,” the group said in an April 2024 letter to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
