The Patriot Post® · Beware Blaming the FBI for J6
FBI Director Christopher Wray announced his pending resignation on Wednesday. A day later, four-year-old news dropped that 26 FBI informants were on the ground at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Washington, DC, is a strange place.
Before I get to the report from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, I want to caution conservatives everywhere: This information will be used to discredit and censor anyone who says anything remotely close to “the FBI incited the riot.” Only Donald Trump “incited an insurrection,” you silly MAGA person. Don’t think for a minute that anyone else had anything to do with it.
Well, except for Buffalo Hat Guy.
Some of that is tongue in cheek, but there are some on the Right already using the new report to accuse the FBI of orchestrating the whole riot — or even just participating in it. Because reality is more nuanced, they will be censored by Big Tech and invite more Leftmedia stories about the boatload of “misinformation” coming out of right-wing fever swamps.
NBC News provides one example: “The report also includes details that will almost certainly fuel the ‘fedsurrection’ narrative that has been growing on the right and among Donald Trump supporters: the false notion that the federal government was responsible for instigating the attack.”
ABC News likewise headlined, “Probe finds no evidence feds were involved in inciting Jan. 6 attack.”
Note the precise wording in both stories.
For years, Wray has repeatedly refused to divulge how many FBI personnel or informants were there that day. Other FBI officials followed suit, stonewalling congressional inquiries. In July, Wray told Congress, “If you’re asking if the violence at the Capitol was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources or agents, the answer is no!”
Again, that’s a very specific denial.
Yesterday, the DOJ IG issued a long-awaited report with a doozy: 26 FBI informants, or confidential human sources (CHS), “were in DC on January 6 in connection with the events planned for January 6.”
However, the IG report assures us, “We found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6.” That detail — no “undercover employees” — is key to the Left’s efforts to discredit the Right.
Indeed, here’s how the leading newspaper in our nation’s capital headlined the IG report: “FBI did not have undercover agents at Jan. 6 riots, watchdog says.”
The report is about 26 FBI informants at the Capitol on January 6, but the Post strategically chose to highlight something else.
Furthermore, according to the IG, only three of the 26 informants were given instructions regarding observation efforts. The other 23 reportedly decided on their own to go to the Capitol. That, too, will be used against anyone who asserts FBI participation.
Either way, the report added, “None of these FBI CHSs were authorized to enter the Capitol or a restricted area, or to otherwise break the law on January 6, nor was any CHS directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6.”
Except most of them did commit illegal acts. “[Four] entered the Capitol during the riot; an additional 13 entered the restricted area around the Capitol, which was a security perimeter established in preparation for the January 6 Electoral Certification; and 9 neither entered a restricted area nor entered the Capitol or otherwise engaged in illegal activity.”
Here’s the report’s kicker: “None of the CHSs who entered the Capitol or a restricted area has been prosecuted to date.”
More than 1,500 people have been charged for various crimes committed that day. Tellingly, none of them were charged with insurrection, the basis for impeaching Trump the second time, but scores were charged with battling police. Most were charged with nonviolent offenses like trespassing or obstructing an official proceeding.
The 17 lawbreaking informants were not among those 1,500.
In fact, the FBI reimbursed travel expenses for at least one of them.
Finally, the report offered just one recommendation: The FBI should “ensure that its processes and procedures set forth with clarity the division of responsibilities” and “clearly define a mechanism for making a formal determination whether and what kind of a nationwide intelligence and CHS canvass is necessary and appropriate under FBI policies.”
As for a comment on the report, the FBI grumbled about continued disagreement “with certain of the factual assertions” but concluded, “The FBI nonetheless accepts the OIG’s recommendation regarding potential process improvements for future events.” What a relief.
Understandably, Trump supporters don’t believe the FBI or this report or anything at all that comes from a Leftmedia outlet — especially pertaining to January 6. None of these organizations has any remaining credibility after foisting multiple hoaxes on us to interfere with the last three presidential elections. There’s also the fact that in virtually no circumstance beyond J6 have Trump supporters gotten violent, before or after J6. The violence almost always comes from the Left. Thus, it’s hard to believe J6 was the fault of Trump supporters.
Yet, since 1996, our motto has been Veritas vos Liberabit — “the truth will set you free.” Telling the truth includes being precise, even when a more significant point needs to be made. There are clearly still unanswered questions about January 6, including about the FBI. This report about informants isn’t the last word.