George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, following the release of a new report, said Thursday that there were “more questions than answers” about FBI informants at the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol building.
Hundreds of people stormed the Capitol building during the certification of the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021. The FBI made more than 1,500 arrests related to the riot, according to a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Turley said that the presence of informants who were not told to be there would be of interest to defense attorneys.
“Well, in some ways, it raises more questions than answers. It does support [FBI Director Christopher] Wray’s testimony that there were no undercover agents in the crowd. I think that for others, there is going to be a lot of concern as to what the sources were doing there,” Turley told Fox News host Martha MacCallum.
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“Only three of them were told to be there. The question is, really, these other people,” Turley said. “We’ve had cases in the past where the defense has argued that sources and agents have been extremely active in pushing people towards criminal conduct. We saw those allegations raised in the Michigan case involving the governor there.”
In Michigan, the FBI investigation involving an alleged plot to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer received criticism. Two men charged in connection with the probe said they were coaxed into the plot by FBI informants. They were convicted in a second trial following a hung jury in the first trial.
“I think that some defense attorneys may raise the question [as to] why they weren’t told, if they weren’t told, about the confidential sources that might have been involved tangentially with their own cases, because usually defense counsel says we want to know what asset, what personnel the government had there. So there is going to be questions of that kind, that arise,” Turley told MacCallum.
“The treatment of the sources are also going to be a subject of continued debate,” Turley said. “This is the department that had someone announce they were going to do a shock and awe, they were going to go after everyone they could to deter future misconduct and, for these three, there was a lot less shock and awe involved in how they were treated.”
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