The FBI didn't deploy any undercover agents to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed in a report released Thursday that undercuts claims that the bureau played a significant role in the events that day.
But the FBI failed to take the "basic step" of canvassing its field offices for intelligence ahead of the attack, the report stated.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told investigators that the lack of a canvass was a "basic step that was missed" and that he would have expected it to have occurred, the report stated.
The long-awaited report by Horowitz determined there were 26 FBI informants in the crowd that day, but just three were assigned by the bureau to be present for the event — they were tasked by FBI field offices to "report on specific domestic terrorism case subjects who were possibly in attendance that day.
"One of these three CHSs [confidential human sources] entered the Capitol during the riot. The other two entered the restricted area around the Capitol," the report stated.
The other 23 were there "on their own initiative" and were not tasked by FBI field offices to attend the events.
None of the confidential human sources "was authorized by the FBI to enter the Capitol or a restricted area or to otherwise break the law on January 6, nor was any CHS directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6," the report stated.
More than 1,500 have been charged in connection with the events at the U.S. Capitol that day.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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