(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) FBI Director Kashyap Patel on Friday defended the bureau’s deployment of 274 agents to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The FBI said the agents were there to quell the handful of violent demonstrators that day. Patel said the deployment violated bureau protocols because the “riot” had already been declared by Metro Police. However, he didn’t address questions about how many of those agents were already embedded within the crowd in an undercover capacity.
“Agents were sent into a crowd control mission after the riot was declared by Metro Police – something that goes against FBI standards,” Patel said in a Fox News interview. “This was the failure of a corrupt leadership that lied to Congress and to the American people about what really happened.”
Patel said agents are stepping forward with information to support the Trump administration’s probe into the federal government’s involvement in Jan. 6.
“We are fully committed to transparency, and justice and accountability continues with this FBI,” he added.
274 FBI agents were thrown into crowd control on Jan 6 against FBI standards.
That failure was on corrupt leadership.
Thanks to agents stepping up, the truth is coming out.
Transparency. Justice. Accountability. pic.twitter.com/BowkQb1h2E
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 28, 2025
His remarks followed speculation that the bureau may have embedded agents before the protests began, raising questions about whether the operation was an inside job.
The controversy heightened by years of stonewalling by former FBI Director Chris Wray, who repeatedly refused to disclose how many agents or confidential sources were present at the Capitol.
President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social, saying Wray “has some major explaining to do.”
“That’s two in a row, Comey and Wray, who got caught LYING, with our Great Country at stake. WE CAN NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN TO AMERICA AGAIN!” Trump wrote, referring to James Comey’s recent indictment for false statements to Congress.
Wray had long denied that FBI agents helped orchestrate the violence. However, he had also dodged direct questions about the number of confidential sources on the ground. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed last year that there were at least 26 informants in the crowd. That’s along with an untold number of undercover assets from the Metropolitan Police, DHS, and potentially other agencies.
In a 2023 exchange with Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., Wray refused to give a straight answer when asked if FBI assets posed as Trump supporters inside the Capitol before doors were opened.
“It should be a no,” Higgins shot back. “Can you not tell the American people, ‘No, we did not have confidential human sources dress as Trump supporters positioned inside the Capitol.’”
