A DOJ’s Inspector General has confirmed that at least 26 FBI confidential informants were in Washington D.C. on January 6th 2021 during the Capitol riot. The Inspector General also added that there wasn’t evidence of undercover bureau agents present.
CNN took that note and ran with it, headlining their article “No undercover FBI agents were at the January 6 US Capitol riot, watchdog reports,” while the New York Post and most other mainstream outlets reported something along the lines of “DOJ watchdog says FBI had 26 confidential sources in DC for Jan. 6 riot.”
Per the report, 4 informants entered the Capitol, 13 went into restricted areas, and only 9 had not engaged in some form of illegal activity.
The report claimed that the FBI had no employees present at the riot, despite also admitting that informants were present. While informants may not be directly on the FBI’s payroll, they are likely contractors or receiving some other form of compensation for information they provide to the agency. CNN confirmed, that those agents were paid sources - making them by all means “employees.”
While these folks may not be on a W2 for the bureau, they work for the bureau, as contractors or otherwise.
Furthermore, the Inspector General’s office claims that informants were not authorized to enter the Capitol or any other restricted area. It underscored that informants were not directed by the bureau to break the law. This begs the question, are FBI informants being held to the same legal standard for breaking the law as regular protestors?
The Inspector General’s office also says that the FBI did not canvass all of its field offices for intelligence from assets that could have aided Capitol police, despite lying to Congress and claiming that they had. The report however claims that the lie was “unintentional.”
