The FBI had more than two dozen informants in Washington, D.C., during the Capitol riot — but no undercover employees were present during the chaos, according to a new report from the Department of Justice’s watchdog.
Of those 26 confidential human sources, four entered the Capitol and 13 went to the restricted area surrounding the Capitol, but none have been charged, the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded in a report released on Thursday.
Nine of them did not enter the Capitol or a restricted area and did not engage in any potentially illegal activity.
Ahead of the Capitol riot, the FBI authorized three informants to report on suspected domestic terror subjects who were potentially attending the event. None of the authorized confidential sources were given permission to enter the Capitol or the restricted area, or commit any illegal activities. The same could be said for the other 23 informants who were at the Capitol riot of their own volition.
The FBI informants provided intelligence to the bureau about January 6th that was consistent with information it gained from other sources. They did not identify anything “critical” that law enforcement was not already aware of prior to the Capitol riot.
The FBI did not canvass its field offices to gather information from the informants to improve its understanding of the threat posed by January 6th before it took place, despite telling Congress otherwise. The inspector general report said the discrepancy was not intentional on the FBI’s part.
FBI director Christopher Wray announced Wednesday that he will resign before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The resignation, which comes just seven years into his ten-year term, clears the path for Trump’s pick, MAGA hardliner Kash Patel. Patel will need to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate.
The FBI said in a letter attached to the report that it “continues to disagree” with some of the “factual assertions in the Report regarding the manner of specific steps, and the scope of the canvass undertaken by the FBI in advance of January 6, 2021,” but the bureau said it “nonetheless accepts the OIG’s recommendation regarding potential process improvements for future events.”
The inspector general’s findings clear the air around persistent speculation from supporters of President-elect Donald Trump who believe the FBI played a pivotal role in the events on January 6th. Trump has said he plans on issuing pardons to individuals imprisoned for their conduct on January 6th once he returns to power.
The Justice Department has prosecuted 1,572 defendants for an assortment of crimes connected to the Capitol riot over the past 47 months. All of the defendants have faced charges for trespassing and disorderly conduct in violation of federal law. Federal prosecutors used an obstruction statute to prosecute many January 6th defendants with charges for preventing an official proceeding from taking place.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Fischer v. U.S. over the summer is prompting the Justice Department to review roughly 259 of those cases to decide whether they should continue.