Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs The FBI should have done more to gather intelligence before the Capitol riot, according to a watchdog report Thursday that also said no undercover FBI employees were on the scene Jan. 6, 2021, and none of the bureau’s informants was authorized to participate.The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released the review nearly four years after the event that rattled the foundations of American democracy. While narrow in scope, it revealed that at least 23 confidential human sources (CHSs) were working for the FBI prior to the incident.While none of the 23 informants were authorized to enter the Capitol or commit illegal acts, four of them entered the Capitol building, and 13 others entered the restricted area around it. Despite this, none of these informants have faced prosecution.The report reveals that three informants were explicitly tasked with traveling to Washington, D.C., in the days leading up to January 6 to monitor and report on the activities of specific domestic terrorism (DT) subjects believed to be attending the rally. The FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO) authorized these assignments.Nine CHSs neither entered restricted areas nor engaged in any illegal activity.The report found that many of the CHSs had provided information on potential unrest before January 6, with some offering updates as the riot unfolded. However, one key revelation from the OIG report is that the FBI did not issue a formal directive for field offices to canvass their informants for intelligence related to January 6. This lack of a formal intelligence collection effort was described as a “missed basic step” by senior FBI officials, according to the report.Although many of the 26 informants did provide the FBI with intelligence before the riot, the information “was no more specific than, and was consistent with, other sources of information” that the FBI had acquired from other channels.Pre-Event Intelligence Missed or IgnoredIntelligence gathered from CHSs included warnings that extremist members of the Oath Keepers “may become involved in unplanned violent activity” on January 6 and that the Oath Keepers contingent “headed to D.C. is 200+ strong.” Additionally, one informant reported that Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio planned to attend the January 6 events but was later arrested on January 4, 2021, on unrelated charges.Notably, one FBI informant reportedly told his FBI handler after the attack that he was not aware of any premeditated plans to breach the Capitol. This information aligns with press reports from 2022, which revealed that FBI informants embedded within the Proud Boys claimed they had no knowledge of plans to storm the Capitol ahead of the attack.A separate report from March 2023 by The New York Times noted that the FBI had multiple informants embedded with the Proud Boys leading up to and on January 6. One informant reported that Proud Boys members were focused on confronting members of “Antifa” rather than planning a coordinated attack on the Capitol.Post-January 6 ResponseAfter January 6, the Department of Justice launched a sweeping investigation as the FBI faced questions over whether it had missed warning signs or failed to adequately disseminate intelligence. This investigation led to charges against more than 1,500 individuals in connection with the attack. While many people who entered restricted areas were prosecuted, the OIG report indicates that FBI informants have not faced prosecution.FBI Director Chris Wray, who announced this week his plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, has defended his agency’s handling of the intelligence report. He told lawmakers in 2021 that the report was disseminated through the joint terrorism task force, discussed at a command post in Washington, and posted on an internet portal available to other law enforcement agencies.
Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. The FBI should have done more to gather intelligence before the Capitol riot, according to a watchdog report Thursday that also said…
Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. The FBI should have done more to gather intelligence before the Capitol riot, according to a watchdog report Thursday that also said no undercover FBI employees were on the scene Jan. 6, 2021, and none of the bureau’s informants was authorized to participate.
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“We did communicate that information in a timely fashion to the Capitol Police and (Metropolitan Police Department) in not one, not two, but three different ways,” Wray said at the time.FBI officials have since defended the agency’s response, noting that FBI tactical teams were among the first to respond once the Capitol was breached. The agency deployed SWAT teams and helped to secure the perimeter, but the report noted that jurisdiction over crowd control and security rested primarily with the U.S. Capitol Police, the U.S. Park Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department.
