Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz concluded last month that no undercover FBI employees were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, nor at the rally on the Ellipse preceding the riot. He also revealed that the bureau had 26 informants in D.C. that day, but only three of them had been tasked by FBI field offices to be in the city. While they entered restricted areas at the Capitol, none were authorized to do so or to encourage others to break the law.
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These findings should be so unsurprising as to be unworthy of much attention. They are sadly relevant because, four years after the insurrection, key figures in the orbit of President-elect Donald Trump have tried to misrepresent them to suggest that they validate the preposterous claim that the FBI staged the Capitol attack.
“For those keeping score at home, this was labeled a dangerous conspiracy theory months ago,” Vice President-elect JD Vance wrote on social media, sharing a story about the 26 informants. Billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk added: “What’s the difference between a ‘right-wing conspiracy’ and reality? About 6 months.” Vivek Ramaswamy, who is set to lead the “Department of Government Efficiency” alongside Mr. Musk, added that anyone who “uttered the facts” in the inspector general’s report was previously labeled a “conspiracy theorist.”
Hovering over all of this is Mr. Trump’s promise to quickly pardon people convicted of Jan. 6 crimes. This would be even less justifiable after the IG report’s than it was before.
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The report says that the assistant special agent in charge of the counterterrorism division at the FBI’s Washington Field Office denied a request to send an undercover employee to D.C. for Jan. 6. This shows that the agency was mindful of a policy that limits undercover employees from collecting intelligence at First Amendment-protected events.
In FBI lingo, informants are confidential human sources. The inspector general determined that 23 of the 26 who went to Washington on Jan. 6 did so “on their own initiative.” The other three were tasked with reporting on potential domestic terrorism subjects who were thought to have been going. One of the three entered the Capitol, and the other two entered the restricted area around the Capitol.
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There should be no revision of history; it was Mr. Trump, not the FBI, who told those in the crowd on the Ellipse that they needed to “fight like hell” to overturn the election results and that he would be joining them at the Capitol.
If anything, the inspector general concluded that the FBI should have done more. Mr. Horowitz says the FBI did not canvass its field offices for intelligence from its informants before Jan. 6, which could have helped law enforcement officials prepare better. He says that the bureau falsely reported to Congress immediately afterward that it had done so.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...tid=mc_magnet-oppodcasts_inline_collection_20
Four years after the insurrection, federal agents have continued to make arrests. On Dec. 19, a Florida man was charged with assaulting a D.C. police officer with a baseball baton the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol during the mob’s effort to stop the counting of electoral votes. Nearly 1,600 individuals — from almost every state — have been charged with federal crimes during the 47 months since the attack, including about 600 on charges of assaulting or impeding law enforcement, which is a felony. (On Dec. 23, a former D.C. police lieutenant was found guilty of improperly warning the leader of the Proud Boys of his pending arrest two days before the Jan. 6 attack and then lying about it to investigators.)
Mr. Trump has said he plans to pardon those convicted of Jan. 6 offenses within “the first nine minutes” of taking office on Jan. 20. A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted in December found that 66 percent of Americans oppose issuing such pardons. Doing so anyway would be an affront not just to the rule of law but also to the brave officers who gave their all that day to hold the line.
Mr. Trump will have the constitutional authority to issue these pardons because he won the 2024 election. On Monday, a joint session of Congress will convene to formally certify the president-elect’s victory. Presiding over that process will be Vice President Kamala Harris, even though she lost the election, just as Al Gore did in 2000 and Mike Pence did four years ago. Democracy endures in spite of, not because of, the chaotic attempt to overturn the will of the people four years ago.
Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter
These findings should be so unsurprising as to be unworthy of much attention. They are sadly relevant because, four years after the insurrection, key figures in the orbit of President-elect Donald Trump have tried to misrepresent them to suggest that they validate the preposterous claim that the FBI staged the Capitol attack.
“For those keeping score at home, this was labeled a dangerous conspiracy theory months ago,” Vice President-elect JD Vance wrote on social media, sharing a story about the 26 informants. Billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk added: “What’s the difference between a ‘right-wing conspiracy’ and reality? About 6 months.” Vivek Ramaswamy, who is set to lead the “Department of Government Efficiency” alongside Mr. Musk, added that anyone who “uttered the facts” in the inspector general’s report was previously labeled a “conspiracy theorist.”
Hovering over all of this is Mr. Trump’s promise to quickly pardon people convicted of Jan. 6 crimes. This would be even less justifiable after the IG report’s than it was before.
Follow Editorial Board
The report says that the assistant special agent in charge of the counterterrorism division at the FBI’s Washington Field Office denied a request to send an undercover employee to D.C. for Jan. 6. This shows that the agency was mindful of a policy that limits undercover employees from collecting intelligence at First Amendment-protected events.
In FBI lingo, informants are confidential human sources. The inspector general determined that 23 of the 26 who went to Washington on Jan. 6 did so “on their own initiative.” The other three were tasked with reporting on potential domestic terrorism subjects who were thought to have been going. One of the three entered the Capitol, and the other two entered the restricted area around the Capitol.
Advertisement
There should be no revision of history; it was Mr. Trump, not the FBI, who told those in the crowd on the Ellipse that they needed to “fight like hell” to overturn the election results and that he would be joining them at the Capitol.
If anything, the inspector general concluded that the FBI should have done more. Mr. Horowitz says the FBI did not canvass its field offices for intelligence from its informants before Jan. 6, which could have helped law enforcement officials prepare better. He says that the bureau falsely reported to Congress immediately afterward that it had done so.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...tid=mc_magnet-oppodcasts_inline_collection_20
Four years after the insurrection, federal agents have continued to make arrests. On Dec. 19, a Florida man was charged with assaulting a D.C. police officer with a baseball baton the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol during the mob’s effort to stop the counting of electoral votes. Nearly 1,600 individuals — from almost every state — have been charged with federal crimes during the 47 months since the attack, including about 600 on charges of assaulting or impeding law enforcement, which is a felony. (On Dec. 23, a former D.C. police lieutenant was found guilty of improperly warning the leader of the Proud Boys of his pending arrest two days before the Jan. 6 attack and then lying about it to investigators.)
Mr. Trump has said he plans to pardon those convicted of Jan. 6 offenses within “the first nine minutes” of taking office on Jan. 20. A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted in December found that 66 percent of Americans oppose issuing such pardons. Doing so anyway would be an affront not just to the rule of law but also to the brave officers who gave their all that day to hold the line.
Mr. Trump will have the constitutional authority to issue these pardons because he won the 2024 election. On Monday, a joint session of Congress will convene to formally certify the president-elect’s victory. Presiding over that process will be Vice President Kamala Harris, even though she lost the election, just as Al Gore did in 2000 and Mike Pence did four years ago. Democracy endures in spite of, not because of, the chaotic attempt to overturn the will of the people four years ago.
