Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, allegedly used confidential human sources (CHS) to infiltrate crowds before to the January 6, 2021, disturbance at the US Capitol Building in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
According to Just the News, the letter also implies that the FBI was using CHSs overseen by field offices outside of Washington, D.C., and that the bureau may not have been able to fully follow them or their operations.
Jordan urged Attorney General Merrick Garland during his hearing last week to provide a briefing on the FBI’s use of CHSs at the Capitol on the day of the disturbance as well as any papers connected to that usage.
Following Tuesday’s testimony from former Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Washington Field Office (WFO), Steven D’Antuono, who claimed that the bureau knew in advance that some of its CHSs would be present for the events of January 6, Just the News continued: “Jordan renewed his request for documents to Wray.
“During this interview, D’Antuono said that the WFO discovered after the events of January 6 that there had been informants who attended voluntarily in addition to confidential sources from other field offices. According to D’Antuono, the FBI was aware in advance of January 6 that some CHSs would be in attendance that day,” the letter to Wray said.
D’Antuono indicated that the WFO requested FBI Headquarters “to do a poll or put out something to people saying w[ere] any CHSs involved” in order for the FBI to attempt and determine how many CHSs had been there at the Capitol because of the significant number of CHSs that were there, Jordan wrote.
“D’Antuono noted that “when we started getting responses back” was following the outreach from Headquarters. He remembered, for instance, that a CHS from the Kansas City Field Office had supposedly kept in touch with his handler while at the event while on the premises at the Capitol. While they were in the crowd, I believe, the CHS reported to his handler that they were entering. In an effort to halt some of the action happening and they left or whatnot,’” the letter continued, quoting the former FBI official.
“This latest information is really alarming. It implies that the FBI lost control of its CHSs present at the Capitol on January 6 and that it is unable to effectively monitor the operations and activities of its informants.
The Federalist was one of the first media outlets to reveal that FBI agents were in the crowd during the Capitol brawl. J. Michael Waller, a senior analyst for strategy at the Centre for Security Policy and a specialist in the use of propaganda, political warfare, psychological warfare, and subversion, published an article on the news website a week after the occurrence.
“The tragic riot at the United States Capitol showed signs of a coordinated operation well before the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress,” his column began.