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A Justice Department watchdog found that there were no undercover FBI employees at the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riot, rejecting speculation from allies of President-elect Donald Trump who have for years suggested that the violence that day was provoked by federal agents.
The DOJ inspector general said Thursday that while no undercover agents were at the rally, 26 confidential human sources – or paid FBI informants – were in Washington that day, none of whom were authorized to break the law themselves or encourage others to do so.
The findings are part of a long-awaited report into the FBI’s preparations before the 2021 attack from Trump supporters trying to stop the confirmation of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.
The inspector general also found that the FBI did not canvass all its field offices for intelligence from informants who could have helped the US Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies better prepare for protests that day. And after the riot, the report says, the FBI inaccurately told Congress that it had directed the field offices to canvass their informants for information about threats in connection with the January 6.
That inaccuracy was unintentional, the inspector general found.
GOP lawmakers, Trump allies and some facing criminal charges because of their alleged actions that day have claimed that law enforcement officials bungled their intelligence sharing or even used paid informants to rile up an otherwise peaceful rally to purposefully create the violent insurrection.
Of the 26 informants who were in Washington, DC, that day, three had specifically been tasked by the FBI to report on specific domestic terrorism case subjects who may be going to the rallies on January 6, the report says. One of those informants entered the Capitol itself, while the other two remained outside on the grounds.
The other 23 went to Washington on their own and were not tasked to do so by the FBI, the IG report states. Of those 23, three informants entered the Capitol during the riot and an additional 11 entered the grounds. The remaining nine informants who attended events on January 6 did not break the law.
Some of those sources also sent in information about the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and “concerns for the safety of Members of Congress on January 6,” the IG found.
“This information was no more specific than, and was consistent with, other sources of information that the FBI and its (Washington Field Office) had received about the potential for violence on January 6, including from other sources of tips the FBI received and from social media.”
No informants have been criminally charged, the inspector general said.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have repeatedly clashed with top officials at the Justice Department and FBI over the riot, most notably over suggestions that FBI informants helped instigate the attack.
Some lawmakers, like Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins, have pushed unfounded theories that federal agents pretending to be Trump supporters tricked people into carrying out mob violence (Higgins once suggested that that “ghost buses” took provocateurs to the Washington). Other Republicans, like Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, have specifically asked the inspector general to include information about how paid informants were used during the riot.
The FBI has not denied that confidential human sources were present at the Capitol that day, and some have even publicly testified at riot-related criminal trials. But FBI Director Christopher Wray has flatly rejected the claim that the bureau orchestrated the violence.
“If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically no,” Wray told members of Congress last November. “This is not violence orchestrated by FBI sources or agents.”
Those theories have public support too. A poll earlier this year found that a staggering 25% of Americans say it is “probably” or “definitely” true that the FBI instigated the riot.
Trump has promised to issue pardons to some of those convicted of crimes stemming from the Capitol riot, suggesting in an article published on Thursday in Time that he will focus on those who were convicted of nonviolent crimes, who he said have been “greatly punished.”
Recommendations and FBI response
The inspector general recommended that the FBI assesses its procedures to prepare for potential domestic security issues that are not designated as a national special security event by the Department of Homeland Security, like January 6, 2021. (January 6, 2025, however, has been designated as a national security special event.)
In a letter responding to the report, the FBI wrote that it disagreed with aspects of the report but would accept the office’s recommendations.
“Although the FBI continues to disagree with certain 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,” the FBI wrote in the letter, which is included in the report.
The bureau stressed that before January 6, “multiple field offices” provided “information in response to direction from Washington Field office and FBI headquarters.”
“The FBI nonetheless accepts the OIG’s recommendation regarding potential process improvements for future events,” they added.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
