No undercover FBI agents were in the January 6 crowds, DOJ IG claims in shocking report

In a report that nearly drew gasps of disbelief on social media, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General says there were no undercover FBI agents in the crowds on Jan. 6 and that only a handful of the 26 FBI informants present that day went into the Capitol.

“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 88-page document stated.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) lashed out at Attorney General Merrick Garland, saying he “lied to me under oath for years about whether confidential human sources were at the Capitol.” Massie said the OIG report is a pretext for President-elect Donald J. Trump to pardon all Jan. 6 defendants.

“MAGA J6ers were prosecuted by DOJ for coming to the Capitol on January 6,” Massie wrote on X. “FBI J6ers were REIMBURSED by DOJ for coming to the Capitol on January 6!”

Critics said the OIG’s use of the term “undercover employee” in the report provides easy cover to mask the true size of the FBI presence at the Ellipse and the Capitol on Jan. 6. A covert or undercover agent is highly trained and plays a specific undercover role.

'We need a full autopsy of J6!'

Special agents typically don’t wear uniforms unless they are part of a tactical squad such as SWAT or the Hostage Rescue Team. Limiting the discussion to covert employees would leave out the many special agents who worked Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C., and at other FBI field offices.

The “undercover” term also would not encompass agents who worked doing mobile surveillance or acted as counterintelligence observers in the crowds, former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend told Blaze News.

In a May 2024 court filing, Jan. 6 defendant William Pope listed nearly 50 FBI agents and others working under the bureau’s auspices on Jan. 6 — such as officers from the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Army counterintelligence, and other agents who later wrote probable-cause affidavits for Jan. 6 arrest warrants.

The long-awaited OIG report focuses only on the use of FBI confidential informants on Jan. 6 and does not delve into other key topics such as the pipe bombs found at the Republican and Democratic headquarters starting at 12:42 p.m. that day.

The DOJ inspector general found that 26 FBI informants were in the crowds on Jan. 6, but only three had been assigned by the bureau to come to Washington and report on “domestic terrorism subjects who were possibly attending the event.”

Of the 26 informants — called “confidential human sources” by the FBI — four entered the Capitol during Jan. 6 protests and rioting, the OIG report said. None was authorized by the FBI to break the law or enter a restricted area, “nor was any CHS directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6.”

No FBI informants have been charged criminally for their presence on Jan. 6, the report said.

That language contradicts an account given by FBI informant James Ehren Knowles, who traveled to Washington, D.C., with the Kansas City chapter of the Proud Boys. Knowles said he was given permission to commit illegal acts, and he entered the Capitol and was seen filming in the Capitol Visitor Center.

Metropolitan Police Department undercover detectives Ricardo Leiva and William Callahan watch the Jan. 6 crowds on the West Plaza at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Photo by William Pope via U.S. District Court

Knowles was named as a co-conspirator in the prosecution case against Proud Boys member Ryan Ashlock. Knowles was never charged with Jan. 6 crimes. Ashlock pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and was sentenced to 70 days in prison.

According to disclosures made in the Jan. 6 DOJ case against Pope, prosecutors said Knowles deleted video from his phone that he appeared to shoot as he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. Many Jan. 6 defendants were charged with crimes for deleting photos from their phones or Facebook accounts.

A leaked FBI document from the Kansas City field office posted online by Jan. 6 defendant Stephen Horn shows that an informant was admonished for illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6. It said the informant “entered the Capitol Building in order to de-escalate and assist law enforcement by removing protesters and rioters from the Capitol Building.”

Defense attorneys in the Proud Boys Jan. 6 trial asserted in several filings that dozens of FBI informants were embedded in or following the large contingent of Proud Boys at the Capitol.

Pope identified a number of current and retired FBI agents in the crowds on Jan. 6, including former Special Agent John Guandolo and several FBI colleagues who watched and celebrated as the crowd of protesters ran up the East Steps toward the Columbus Doors just after 2 p.m.

One of the FBI agents, who allegedly was off duty on Jan. 6, was seen on Capitol security video meeting with members of an FBI SWAT team that had just rolled up to the East Front in a tactical vehicle. The SWAT members subsequently entered the Capitol.

Pope greeted the new OIG report with skepticism.

“This IG report that claims only 26 informants and no undercover agents — when we have already identified FBI agents in the crowd at the Capitol — comes off as an attempt to defuse a future investigation by giving a partial concession,” Pope wrote in a post on X. “Not good enough! We need a full autopsy of J6!”

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