Politics
Trump Nominee Confirms Investigation Of Alleged FBI Involvement On Jan 6 Is Ongoing
Joe Kent, a special forces veteran who has been nominated to serve as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, confirmed that the Trump-led intelligence community is actively investigating the possible involvement of the FBI, DHS and other federal law enforcement agencies in instigating the unrest at the January 6 Capitol protests in 2021.
While awaiting Senate confirmation, Kent has been working as acting chief of staff for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) asked whether the administration believes undercover federal agents and informants played a role in turning what was a peaceful protest into a minor riot.
“We’re looking into whether elements of the government could have enhanced the criminal acuity of some of the rioters that day,” Kent responded.
“So you’ve said on Twitter that the FBI and the intelligence community were involved in planning and directing the riot, is that correct?” Kelly then followed up, to which Kent replied, “Sounds like it.”
When asked for evidence, Kent pointed to documented instances of federal or local law enforcement agencies embedded within the crowd on January 6. Body camera footage obtained by former January 6 defendant Will Pope shows multiple undercover officers with the D.C. Metropolitan Police encouraging protesters to climb over barricades and walls in order to enter the Capitol complex.
At one point, MPD bicycle officers stopped four armed men in plainclothes that turned out to be law enforcement agents. Another video shows a man walking behind Ashli Babbitt, the woman fatally slain by Capitol Police officer Michael Byrd, and predicted that “someone will get shot.”
At the federal level, Steven D’Antuono, who previously served as the head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, testified that the bureau lost track of the number of confidential human sources present that day because they had so many.
The Washington field office ultimately had to ask FBI headquarters “to do a poll or put out something to people saying w[ere] any confidential human sources involved,” in order to determine how prevalent the bureau’s presence was at the Capitol. “We started getting responses back” from FBI headquarters, D’Antuono said, which helped to determine which field offices had assets present in the crowd.
One paid informant from the Kansas City field office was in communication with his FBI handler as the crowd began to enter the building. “While they were in the crowd, I think, saying that they were going in,” D’Antuono recalled.
“So we’ve already identified that there were multiple confidential human informants ran by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that were present in the crowd that day, directing, removing barriers, those types of things. This has been investigated widely,” Kent told the committee.
“We’re continuing to look into it. The intelligence, I would say the FBI and other elements of the law enforcement apparatus attempted to suppress the fact that there was undercover confidential human informants that were part of these different groups,” he continued. “We also had intelligence leading up to January 6th that there was going to be violence that day so that speaks to some degree of intelligence infiltration into some of these groups.”
When asked for specifics, Kent cautioned that the matter is still under investigation, though he did reveal that the activity likely stemmed from the Washington Field Office.
“So you believe the Washington Field Office was involved in the planning of the violence in the building next door on January 6th?” Kelly asked. “It’s being looked into,” Kent replied.
The senator then followed by asking whether Kent and other members of the intelligence community believe undercover assets and informants engaged in “planning of the violence” on Capitol Hill.
“If you look at who was running the Washington field office during January 6th, it was Steven D’Antuono. He was also running the field office in Michigan, where many of the defendants were let go after they were accused of attempting to kidnap the governor, because the vast majority of them were undercover FBI confidential informants,” the Trump nominee replied.
“So unfortunately, this behavior does happen by members of law enforcement and the intelligence community, and it’s incumbent upon us to make sure that we are transparent with the American people.”
