“President Donald Trump on Saturday falsely accused the FBI of fomenting the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol — a sharp escalation of his attacks on the bureau and his effort to downplay the violence a mob of his supporters inflicted that day.
“Trump on social media said the FBI had “secretly placed” 274 agents into the crowd of rioters who stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
“His comments stemmed from reports Friday in right-leaning media that appeared to conflate the FBI’s response to the Jan. 6 attack — the bureau has long acknowledged sending agents and support personnel to the Capitol after the breach to help restore order — with conspiracy theories that the bureau embedded undercover agents to ignite the attack in the first place.
“In reality, the inspector general of the Justice Department revealed 10 months ago that “hundreds” of FBI agents went to the Capitol to assist at the request of the beleaguered Capitol Police. The bureau also had personnel responding to pipe bombs placed outside the national Republican and Democratic parties’ headquarters and to a vehicle full of explosives.
The inspector general did find that 26 FBI confidential sources — who are not employees of the bureau but have at times shared information — were among the crowd that day. But nearly all of them, the IG found, did not tell the bureau of their plans to attend, and none were instructed to violate any laws or participate in the riot.
The IG report also found “no evidence” that the agency had “undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6.””