The FBI involvement in “the insurrection” and right-wing extremism: the latest is the Proud Boy informant
Once again, it should come as no surprise:
The informant’s communications with the FBI [about January 6h and the Proud Boys] show that the group did not have any specific plans once they arrived at the Capitol, but apparently succumbed to a “mob mentality” of the pro-Trump herd of supporters.
Oh, is that what they “succumbed” to? Or was it something urged and facilitated by FBI agents and/or informants?
[The informant’s] federal bureau contact told him to keep communicating and let him know if violence broke out, according to the report.
The revelation that an informant was giving the FBI a blow-by-blow description of the event in real time and that there was no organized planning involved, may derail federal prosecutions already in the works.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, as of Sept. 6, eight months after the incident, more than 600 people have been arrested and charged…
Of the more than 600 charged, 50 have pleaded guilty to “a variety of federal charges” and face jail time, 40 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, nine to felonies, and three of those to assault on law enforcement officers which carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to the agency.
So if the FBI had a real time informant (probably many, actually, as well as real-time participants), why wasn’t the “insurrection” stopped or even prevented in advance? It’s hard to escape the notion that the FBI didn’t want “the insurrection” prevented or stopped. And of course the FBI might even have instigated it, which is the most pernicious possibility of all.
The NY Times has published an article on this – why? The paper usually ignores that which it doesn’t wish its readers to know. When they do publish something that makes a Democrat administration and/or the left look bad, it usually means the news is going to come out anyway – often in some sort of court proceedings – and that the Times is eager to get ahead of the story and frame it in a way that exonerates the government and/or the left as much as possible. I believe that’s the case here.
For example, the article says:
The use of informants always presents law enforcement officials with difficult judgments about the credibility and completeness of the information they provide. In this case, the records obtained by The Times do not directly address whether the informant was in a good position to know about plans developed for Jan. 6 by the leadership of the Proud Boys, why he was cooperating, whether he could have missed indications of a plot or whether he could have deliberately misled the government.
But the records, and information from two people familiar with the matter, suggest that federal law enforcement had a far greater visibility into the assault on the Capitol, even as it was taking place, than was previously known.
In other words, I believe the Times wants to suggest to the readers that (a) informants sometimes are mistaken or lie – and so, for example, in the case of January 6th the Proud Boys might have been planning an insurrection conspiracy without the informant’s knowledge or he could have been hiding that knowledge from the FBI; and (b) perhaps the FBI had visibility into the January 6th events while they were happening, but the agency certainly wasn’t involved in planning or orchestrating those events. Perish the thought!
The report, based on documents seen by reporters, also raises questions about whether FBI Director Chris Wray lied to Congress about the FBI’s lack of foreknowledge of the melee. It also begs the question of why the FBI and other police agencies failed to harden the Capitol in advance.
There were a lot of peaceful protesters there that day. Here’s a man caught on video screaming for the police to call for backup to stop the attack…
Revolver News claims that [another alleged FBI informant] Stewart Rhodes used his position as head of the Oath Keepers to capture others in a conspiracy of his own making and then skated away from any charges.
Oddly, despite the “shock and awe” prosecutions, Rhodes hasn’t been indicted in the Capitol riot case, but, as the publication noted, it was his actions leading up to the Capitol riot for which his underlings have been charged with conspiracy.
“The government has, in effect, built its case against the 16 Oath Keepers in large part by saying “We know you’re guilty of conspiracy because we definitely know your leader Stewart Rhodes is guilty of conspiracy, and it looks like you were following your leader.”
But Stewart Rhodes is not even charged. He is still just “Person One.”
Also related – Howie Carr suggests that the FBI should be abolished. Roger L. Simon has said the very same thing. It’s not going to happen, but it is sadly and outrageously true that the FBI has become a destructive and mendacious force.
It could be argued the FBI took down 2 sitting Presidents. I have yet to see any of the “Breakers” being arrested, held or any way investigated.
Another reason I believe video is being hidden, they would show the Breakers doing the damage then disappear.
Cui Bono? is always a question worth asking. Neither the corrupt FBI, nor the viciously partisan Pelosi with her Capitol Police, nor the DNC would have wished for any sort of “problematic” event to have been prevented on J6; the point of the gathering at the Capitol was to question the fairness of last November’s rigged election and the so-called “legitimacy” of the incoming Harris/Biden administration. Whether or not the unruly part of the “mostly peaceful” protest was largely orchestrated by the FBI’s agents provocateurs, with the help of leftist agitators (true, in all likelihood), or whether it was simply allowed to happen because it was useful to the “progressive” agenda is less important than that it functioned as the DNC’s Reichstag Fire.
I am holding my breathe awaiting the report of those FBI informants who are ensconced within BLM and ANTIFA.
I remember during one of the presidential debates – Trump vs Hillary – where the Fox news “moderator,” the leftist POS moron Chris Wallace, asked Trump if he would repudiate the Proud Boys.
Trump responded “who are the Proud Boys.”
The POS Wallace did not ask Hillary if she would repudiate BLM or ANTIFA.
If I recall correctly, the CPUSA endorsed Hillary; surprise surprise, she was not asked if she would repudiate the CPUSA (or commies in general).
I expect that the FBI didn’t just have “informants”, but likely undercover agents as well.
The left will continue to refer to January 6th as an insurrection, despite the fact that nobody (except perhaps the FBI) planned to storm the capitol, and that nobody seems to have intended to stop the election process. This is because words do not have meanings for these people, just emotive value.
Conservative commenters thought the men who changed into black clothing before the Capitol riot were Antifa infiltrators. Now the speculation is that they were FBI. Why haven’t they been identified and charged? Because authorities know they’re FBI?
Holman Jenkins, in the WSJ editorial pages, has also called for abolishing the FBI, perhaps restructuring it into an investigative unit under more direct control of the various US attorneys who handle federal law infractions.
Neo wrote:
“ … but it is sadly and outrageously true that the FBI has become a destructive and mendacious force.“
I have to disagree with you on this.
The FBI has ALWAYS BEEN a destructive and mendacious force.
One of my interests is learning about WWII.
Time after time when reading a well researched book on the subject it turns out the FBI stole credit for someone else’s hard work in protecting America.
“The Woman Who Smashed Codes” by Joseph Fagone provides some examples of the FBI taking credit for the code breaking actually done by Elizebeth Friedman.
Tuvea:
I think you misunderstood me.
Note that I didn’t say WHEN this had happened. The Howie Carr link I added, for example, says it happened at least 50 years ago. I also think it happened a long time ago, although I couldn’t say exactly when. I do think it has gotten worse and worse in the last decade or two, however, and during the Trump years.
Nonapod,
Agent provocateurs, at least from the 60s on but likely they have been at it since the beginning of the agency.
Have they done good work too? Yes, but the pernicious effects of the bad undermine any and all the good done. Not that they are alone either.
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/475941/
Organizations with less accountability on their power entice the corruptible to join and get the rewards corruption.
At least it isn’t being said that the upper echelon of the FBI are the only criminals. Rank and file are all in on it. Rot from top to bottom.
perhaps restructuring it into an investigative unit under more direct control of the various US attorneys who handle federal law infractions.
Note, investigation and patrol on the one hand and prosecution on the other are in separate departments under separate chains of command at the state and local level. We’re having problems with wretched abuses by federal authorities. Why should we wish to enhance a signature feature of federal law enforcement?
Why not rescramble the contents of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security? One department for prosecutions, one for civil defense and disaster relief, one for custody, one for security services on federal property &c, one for roving investigations; and one for patrols, inspections, and miscellany?
And, while were at it, dissolve the hopeless FBI and scarify the federal criminal code.
The Jan 6th protest was used by the democrats to create a false flag event. In doing so, all involved committed treason.
I agree that the FBI should be dissolved but of course it’s not going to happen. Who would do it? Hard to believe that Trump went through all the trouble of firing James Comey only to replace him with the oleaginous Christopher Wray. It’s hard to believe that there wasn’t somebody on the Trump team who noticed what a corrupt sleazebag Wray is. I just don’t see how the deep corruption at FBI, CIA, NSA etc. gets fixed.
Agent provocateurs. When the doors to the Capital were first breached, the activities were led by a number of men dressed all in black. Some of them had been restrained by the Hoi Polloi of normal people, the Faces in the Crowd types that had attended the Trump rally across the Mall. This is plainly seen in the many videos shot before the entry was successfully made. They were even asking the cops that were there, for help.
Then when the crowds began surging in, there was a cadre of men who had positioned themselves at the front of each wave, who exhorted the Hoi Polloi to attack Capital Police force, to ‘reclaim their rights’ and ‘defend the Constitution’ and other provocative and incendiary phrases in an absurdly simplistic – i.e. phoney – Patriotic vein.
Yet – as far as I can tell – none of these bad actors have been identified or targeted by the Feds. The only ones that seem to have been targeted are the ones that became memes, the Joe Sixpack types: Mr. Boots on Pelosi’s desk, Viking Man, the Lectern Carrier, and etc. I’m sure there are probably others that are righteous busts, brawlers in the crowd. But the FBI has never announced that they have arrested, and are prosecuting, the large number of agitators that led these kinds of charges inside the building – as far as I can tell. They stand out from the normal demographic of Trump supporters that wandered around and mostly stayed within the velvet ropes.
The reluctance to release the video evidence is part of this, I believe. They don’t want the public pointing to the bad actors and saying ‘What about this guy?” – potentially leaving their inside informers busted and the shreds of their cases demolished completely.
Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Richard Spencer… there’s a lot of Astroturfing out there. Some done by your friendly FBI, some by your friendly Fellow American Cosmopolitan Unmentionable Billionaire Oligarchs: Kirk and TPUSA being case in point.
Oh yeah, “Insurrection Day”. So similar to Bastille Day with folks roaming through the streets with iPhones taking photos and their MAGA hats, not needing any weapons or assistance from the Régiment des Gardes françaises.
Calling it an insurrection changes the definition of the word. What an utter joke.
“We’re with the FBI.”
“Sheesh. Do your parents know?”
That said, I know two people–different time zones–who are going through a very rough patch and whose neighbors are federal agents–Secret Service in one case–and could not be more helpful.