Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday released a scathing report detailing how the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies repeatedly ignored, downplaying or not sharing violence warnings ahead of the January 6, 2021 attacks on the United States. Capital.
The 106-page report, titled “Clearly Planned,” highlighted and added to evidence uncovered by the now defunct 6 January committee, news reporting and other congressional work to provide the most comprehensive picture to date of a cascade of security and intelligence failures that culminated in the deadliest attack on the United States. Capitol for centuries.
Aides said Senate staff obtained thousands of additional documents from federal law enforcement agencies, including the Justice Department, before drafting the report. It included many calls for armed violence, calls for the occupation of federal buildings including the Capitol, and some of the most obvious threats the FBI received but did not do much about – including the warned that the far-right group Proud Boys was planning murders in Washington.
“Our intelligence agencies completely missed the opportunity,” said Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. He added: “Despite countless other advice and intelligence warnings about the violence on January 6, the report shows that these agencies have repeatedly — over and over — downplayed the threat level. and do not share the intelligence they have with law enforcement partners.”
The report determined that the FBI’s surveillance of social media threats “had degraded just days before the attack” because the bureau had changed its contract to monitor third-party social networks. The committee received internal emails showing that FBI officials were “surprised” at the timing of the contract change and “complained about the negative impact it would have on their surveillance capabilities prior to the date of the change.” January 6.”
But the investigation made it clear that surveillance was not the only problem. It blamed the FBI for not acting on a series of dire warnings.
On January 3, 2021, the FBI became aware of numerous posts calling for violence, such as one Parler user who said, “Get armed.” On January 4, Justice Department leaders noted numerous related posts, including calls to “occupy federal buildings,” discussions of “invading the capitol building.” and individuals arming themselves “to engage in political violence”.
However, the report highlights interviews with two FBI leaders who said they were unaware that Congress could be under siege.
“If everybody knew and all the public knew that they were going to storm Congress, I don’t know why one person didn’t tell us,” said Jennifer Moore, special agent in charge of the FBI’s intelligence division. in Washington, said. Senate investigators.
Jill Sanborn, a former assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, testified: “None of us had any intelligence to suggest that individuals would break in and break into the Capitol.”
The work of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis was also criticized. The report shows that the agency, on January 2, discovered that individuals were sharing maps of the Capitol building online. One employee texted another, saying, “felt like people were really trying to hurt politicians.”
But agency analysts do not appear to be taking such threats seriously, even when it is clear that the violence warned is coming to fruition. At 2:58 p.m. on January 6, after police declared riots and the Capitol was placed on lockdown, analysts noted inside online chat that “calls for a lot of violence more,” but added that “at this time no reliable information for retransmission has been established.”
An FBI representative said they worked with law enforcement agencies, including the Metropolitan Police, before and on January 6: “We have also established command posts and have tactical vehicles ready to deploy should our partners require such assistance.”
The agency added that in the wake of the attack, it increased its focus on “rapidly sharing information” with law enforcement partners and that it also “made improvements to support assisting investigators and analysts at all of our field offices throughout the investigation.”
A Department of Homeland Security representative said the agency “has increased intelligence analysis, information sharing, and operational readiness to help prevent acts of violence and keep communities safe.” ours” since the attack.
The report is not the first to analyze critical security flaws during and before the January 6 attack on the Capitol. A bipartisan group of senators, including Mr. Peters, issued a report in June 2021 outlining large-scale failures.
The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol also detailing a “massive intelligence failure”,” discovered tips such as the December 26 warning that the Proud Boys were assembling “a group large enough to enter DC armed and would outnumber the police so that they could not be stopped.”
That committee, which undertook one of the largest investigative efforts in congressional history, draw some criticism from some of his own staff for focusing too much on former President Donald J. Trump’s role in his plan to overturn the 2020 election and not paying much attention to the real agency’s intelligence failures law enforcement.
Mr. Peters said his committee’s report was intended to “fill in some of the gaps.”
