FBI didn't have undercover agents at Jan. 6 Capitol riot, also didn't stoke it: Report
No, FBI agents didn’t start, or participate in, the January 6 insurrection, a new report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General concludes. Meanwhile, white supremacist Nick Fuentes is accused of battery for allegedly attacking a woman who confronted him on his racist and misogynist views. And as President-elect Donald Trump again promises pardons, the extremist street gang the Proud Boys is celebrating.
It’s the week in extremism from USA TODAY.
FBI was undercover at Jan. 6, but didn’t start it: Report
A long-awaited report from the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General detailing the FBI’s role in policing the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol concludes that while dozens of informants were in the crowd, there was no evidence of undercover agents storming the Capitol.
The canard that the Jan. 6 riot was actually an FBI setup and was driven on by undercover agents has been circulating since the days after the attack. The OIG’s report pours cold water on this conspiracy theory.
“We found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6,” the report states.
As USA TODAY reported, the findings contradict suggestions that the attack was government-directed. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., claimed at a 2023 House Committee on Homeland Security hearing that there were "ghost buses" that were "filled with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters, deployed onto our Capitol on January 6th."
The report notes that three FBI informants were assigned to the capital that day to keep an eye on domestic terrorism suspects they were monitoring. An additional 23 informants attended the riot on their own, according to the report.
The report also notes a significant intelligence failing by the FBI in the runup to Jan. 6: “Specifically, the FBI did not canvass its field offices in advance of January 6, 2021, to identify any intelligence, including CHS reporting, about potential threats to the January 6 Electoral Certification.”
In the days leading up to the riot, hundreds of people, including well-known domestic extremists and the leaders of extremist groups, made public posts threatening disorder on Jan. 6. The riot was not a surprise to most experts in domestic violent extremism.
White Supremacist Nick Fuentes accused of battery
White supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes is facing battery charges after allegedly attacking and pepper-spraying a woman who confronted him on his doorstep.
The Chicago Tribune reported on the incident, which happened in November, this week. According to court documents, the Tribune reported, a 57-year-old woman went to Fuentes’ home in Berwyn, IL, where she made a video of herself and confronted him.
The confrontation came shortly after Fuentes posted the misogynistic slogan “Your body, my choice” on X.
“She alleged that Fuentes opened the door before she could ring the bell, pepper-sprayed her, screamed an expletive and took her phone,” the Associated Press reported.
Fuentes is due in court later this month.
Proud Boys celebrate as Trump promises pardons
America’s far-right extremists are anxiously waiting to see how extensively Trump wields his pardon power when he takes office later this month. As USA TODAY reported last month, widespread pardons of Jan. 6 insurrectionists would likely give the flailing far-right movement a significant boost.
The Anti-Defamation League notes in its newsletter this week that Telegram accounts connected to the Proud Boys celebrated after Trump told NBC News on Monday he would begin issuing pardons on his first day in office.
The ADL notes: “One post in a chat dedicated to a Proud Boys rapper (we also have questions) read, “OUR FAMILY IS COMING HOME PRAISE GOD THANK YOU TRUMP!!!!”
Proud Boys accounts on Telegram, where the group is most publicly active, have long been calling for pardons for members of their organization who were charged with committing crimes on Jan. 6.
At least 54 Proud Boys have been charged in connection to the insurrection, according to an analysis by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.
Statistic of the week: One less
There's one less white supremacist working at JP Morgan Chase after the Texas Observer revealed that a man working for the company was also running one of the most influential neo-Nazi accounts on X.
"This person is no longer at the firm. We do not tolerate hate in any form and take incidents such as this very seriously," a spokesperson for the company told the observer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jan. 6 insurrection didn't include undercover FBI agents: Report