We now know the number of FBI assets the Department of Justice admits were in the crowd on that Jan. 6, 2021, day when there was a riot at the U.S. Capitol.
That would be 26, according to a report from DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz.
But the real question is what did they do?
It is Washington Examiner columnist Byron York who focused Friday on that specific issue.
He pointed out that of the 26, “17 went into the Capitol or into the restricted area around the Capitol. Of them, four went inside the Capitol, while 13 were on the restricted grounds. Beyond that number, there were nine CHSs who did not enter the Capitol or the restricted area. We don’t know where they were,” he said.
Of course some 1,500 other Americans have been arrested and prosecuted for charges that sometimes include no more than going into the Capitol.
York continued, “The FBI told Horowitz that most of the CHSs came to Washington on their own and not at the orders of or request of the FBI. But several of them, 13 in all, informed their FBI handlers that they were traveling to Washington. And three of the CHSs had, in fact, been assigned by FBI field offices to go to Washington. Of that group, one entered the Capitol, while the other two entered the restricted area. The report says that none of them were authorized by the FBI to enter those areas. Of the 23 other CHSs who were not assigned to go to Washington and instead came on their own initiative, three entered the Capitol, and 11 entered the restricted area.”
None has been prosecuted. And none was identified.
He explains, “On many occasions, the report states that this or that CHS, whether in Washington on FBI directions or not, ‘was not authorized to enter the Capitol or a restricted area, or to otherwise break the law on January 6, 2021.’ There is a tone of defensive repetition throughout the report: The FBI wants you to know, over and over and over, that it didn’t authorize anyone to do anything bad.”
But missing is “what the FBI confidential sources actually did, authorized or not.”
There are a couple of “bare-bones” sketches. And, the report said, there is confirmation some of the “sources” were reimbursed for their travel expenses. And some even were given further assignments.
He continued, “The Justice Department, which has been hyperaggressive in pursuing Jan. 6 participants, knows who they are and knows they went inside the Capitol.”
Maybe, he wondered, “the FBI did not want a messy prosecution that would inevitably reveal a lot about the FBI’s activities.”
“Whatever the case, it still means the FBI, which stonewalled Republicans in Congress on all sorts of issues during the first Trump administration, is being far less than transparent about what some of its secret informants did on Jan. 6. We know enough, for example, to know that the bureau was very happy with the work of Field Office 4 CHS, but we don’t know things like: How did he get into the Capitol? How long was he there? Who was he with? What did he do?”
Further the DOJ IG report doesn’t address any issues with Capitol Police or Washington Metropolitan Police.
He noted it’s good to know the number of FBI sources there.
“But that’s not the whole story.”
BREAKING: Inspector General report shows that 26 FBI/DOJ confidential sources were in the crowd on January 6th, and some of them went into the Capitol and restricted areas. pic.twitter.com/hlB7m1bKB2
— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) December 12, 2024
Because of the years it took for that confirmation to be revealed, speculation suggested that law enforcement agents were part of the riot, or even organized and abetted it.
In fact, President Donald Trump repeatedly had offered to authorize National Guard troops to be at the Capitol that day to make sure there wasn’t any significant violence, but his offer was rejected by Democrats in Washington, including both at the city and federal levels.
