Testimony by a former assistant director at the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) indicates that the bureau lost track of the number of paid informants that they had infiltrating the crowd of protesters during the January 6th riot at the Capitol.
The New York Post reports that Steven D’Antuono, formerly in charge of the bureau’s Washington field office, told the House Judiciary Committee that he was aware of informants with his own office attending a rally on that day.
But he later learned after the fact that “informants run by other field offices also were present” along with “others who had participated of their own accord.”
Remarkably, the FBI had to conduct a poll in order to track down how many “Confidential Human Sources” or CHSs had taken part in events that day.
D’Antuono would only allege that “a handful” of informants were discovered.
EXCLUSIVE: The FBI had so many paid informants at the Capitol #J6 they lost track of the number, had to do a later audit – and at least one informant was communicating with his FBI handler as he entered the Capitol, says Steven D’Antuono, ex FBI WFO AD https://t.co/MZNudkzgSo
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) September 19, 2023
RELATED: Leaked Video Shows Ex-Capitol Police Chief Saying January 6th Was A ‘Cover Up’
Prior Evidence Seems To Suggest More Than A ‘Handful’ of FBI Informants Were Involved In January 6th
D’Antuono testifying that there were simply a “handful” of FBI informants at the Capitol on January 6th doesn’t sync with previous evidence to the contrary.
And if the FBI lost track of roughly five or so informants alone, that speaks to an incredible depth of incompetence on their part.
The FBI had, according to multiple reports, numerous informants working with groups involved in the Capitol riot prior to that fateful day. Are we to believe only a “handful” ended up committing to the rally on January 6 despite months of prior planning?
Report: Informant Warned FBI That January 6 Was a ‘Big’ Threat Weeks BEFORE Capitol Riot, They Did Nothing – The Political Insider https://t.co/vpET8exLjE
— Kathlin Hawleys (@HawleysJadefav) December 21, 2022
Court documents examined by the New York Times show that the FBI had as many as eight informants embedded with the “Proud Boys” group in the months leading up to the Capitol riot.
Prior to that, the Times publicized that the FBI had a well-placed informant within the Oath Keepers, another group that took part in the protest.
D’Antuono admitted that at least one of the informants maintained contact with his FBI handler as he went inside the Capitol, but assured the committee that the individual was “trying to stop some of the action” and simply “left or whatnot” when that didn’t work out.
The FBI had so many operatives in the J6 crowd they lost track of the number https://t.co/dnJUwxSZoX
— ?? Carson Krow ?? (@carsonkrow) September 20, 2023
Jim Jordan Accuses FBI of ‘Fabricating’ Evidence
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) penned a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray suggesting that the latest testimony reinforces concerns that the bureau “fabricated evidence and misrepresented information” in regard to January 6th.
Wray, in his own testimony before the committee this past July, repeatedly refused to say if the FBI had any informants in the crowd at the Capitol.
“I really need to be careful here talking about where we have or have not used confidential human sources,” Wray stated before suggesting he’d look into the matter.
He wouldn’t even answer if he knew of “one or more.”
FBI Dir. Wray won’t answer whether there was “more than one” FBI informant in the crowd or in the Capitol on day of Jan. 6 Capitol riot. pic.twitter.com/wWwa2ahoWr
— Fred Lucas (@FredLucasWH) July 12, 2023
Thank goodness for that post-riot poll that the FBI conducted to find out how many informants they had and lost track of. Otherwise, we might never know.
Incidentally, does anybody believe for a minute that all of the informants in the crowd that day responded to the audit and admitted that they were there, essentially conceding that they had done little to nothing to stop what happened?
Jordan, in his letter to Wray, said that the testimony provided by D’Antuono indicates that “the FBI cannot adequately track the activities and operations of its informants, and that it lost control of its CHSs present at the Capitol on January 6.”
??The FBI had so many paid informants at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that they lost track of the number and had to perform a later audit to determine exactly how many “Confidential Human Sources” run by different FBI field offices were present that day. pic.twitter.com/X5ABDaY2Dy
— Dreambuilder (@Dreambu49405472) September 19, 2023
“These revelations reinforce existing concerns, identified by Special Counsel Durham, about the FBI’s use of, and payment to, CHSs who have fabricated evidence and misrepresented information,” Jordan wrote.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, following an interview with Steven Sund, the chief of the Capitol Police at the time of the January 6th riot, said that his understanding was that the crowd on January 6th was “filled with agents.”
Whoa
Tucker Carlson Tells @rustyrockets That He Was Able To Interview The Chief Of The Capitol Police On January 6th Steven Sund
Sund Claimed In The Interview The Crowd Was Filled With Federal Agents On January 6th
Fox News Took Tucker Carlson Off The Air Before The… pic.twitter.com/AUqqMpg63H
— The Columbia Bugle ?? (@ColumbiaBugle) July 7, 2023
Sund would go on to tell Carlson that he believed law enforcement officials were aware of the potential of a riot on January 6th before it happened and covered it up.
“This didn’t have to happen,” he insisted. “Everything appears to be a cover-up.”
? LEAKED: Capitol Police Chief on J6 from Tucker Carlson’s Interview that Fox Spiked: “It was a Cover Up!… I’m denied National Guard while we’re under attack, for 71 minutes…”
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 3, 2023
Earlier this year, a top lawyer investigating January 6th indicated that the FBI and other intelligence agencies could have prevented the chaos had they acted on the information that had been gathered by informants.
“What happened at the Capitol was also affected by law enforcement failures to operationalize the ample intelligence that was present before Jan. 6, about the threats of violence,” former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy said in an interview with NBC.
“Law enforcement had a very direct role in contributing to the security failures that led to the violence,” he added.
Exclusive: Top Jan. 6 investigator says FBI, DHS, Capitol Police could have repelled the Capitol mob had they acted on intelligence collected in the weeks before the attack https://t.co/MfzhKUgM7k
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) January 31, 2023
Previous reporting described an informant who warned the FBI weeks in advance that January 6th posed a “big” threat of violence, but was ultimately ignored.
That informant reportedly highlighted an uptick in messages speaking of a Civil War and a willingness to sacrifice lives prior to the riot.
“The bureau saw this coming,” the informant accused.
They saw it coming, multiple informants were embedded, and yet Sund claims he was denied assistance from the National Guard support for “71 minutes.”
There is no reason they shouldn’t have been on standby from the onset.
“Could there possibly be actually… they kind of wanted something to happen?” Sund wondered out loud in his discussion with Carlson. “It’s not a far stretch to begin to think that.”
Sund, according to the New York Post, has claimed that the FBI had at least 18 undercover agents in the crowd along with an estimated 20 from the Department of Homeland Security.
If that is correct on the high end, you’re talking 38 informants or agents in the crowd plus, as D’Antuono testified, a number of those who “participated of their own accord.”
It begins at that point to appear that the FBI and DHS made up a good percentage of the overall crowd on January 6th.
It’s rather convenient that they lost track of a majority of them.
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