After the violence, the Capitol building was breached and the dust settled the FBI claimed they had no evidence that any type of unrest was planned at the US Capitol building, however, and a recent report says otherwise.
The Friday after the attack on the Capitol the head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Steven D’Antuono said to reporters “there was no indication” of anything other than a “First Amendment-protected activity” was planned on January 6th the day protestors flooded the Capitol.
Just a few days later, D’Antuono claims they had knowledge of possible violence.
A situational report collected by the FBI’s Virginia’s field office warned that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and “war.” One of their assets captured an online conversation detailing the plans of unrest.
The report showed some of the plans, including maps of the Capitol, rally points, and meet up designations.
“As of 5 January 2021, FBI Norfolk received information indicating calls for violence in response to ‘unlawful lockdowns’ to begin on 6 January 2021 in Washington. D.C.,” the document says. “An online thread discussed specific calls for violence to include stating ‘Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Antifa slave soldiers being spilled. Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”
An FBI official familiar with the intelligence said that within an hour of learning about the online conversation, the Norfolk, VA office informed others within the bureau. The official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to discuss ongoing investigation said the “failure was not one of intelligence, but of acting on the intelligence.”
D’Antuono said that the pre-riot arrest of Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys was an attempt to stop the violence.
The question everyone is asking is if the FBI knew about the violence why wasn’t more done to prevent the unrest. Did they inform the Capitol Police? Did they inform Speaker Pelosi and Senator McConnell? Did they inform the House and Senate Sergeant At Arms? Did they tell the mayor’s office?
As of the writing of this post, it appears that no other agencies outside the FBI were notified of the intelligence.
A lot of people are now asking why the FBI didn’t do more and tip-off other agencies to prevent the unrest and why did they initially say they had no knowledge of any threat?
Washington Post | Stars and Stripes
