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EXCLUSIVE: The FBI responded on Saturday to a report that 274 plainclothes agents were at the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, clarifying the role of bureau personnel while still blasting former Director Christopher Wray.
While the agents were on hand, they were sent in after the riot had begun to try to control the unruly crowd, officials told Fox News Digital. That is not the proper role of FBI agents, and Wray was not forthcoming about what happened when he testified numerous times on Capitol Hill, Director Kash Patel said.
“Agents were sent into a crowd control mission after the riot was declared by Metro Police – something that goes against FBI standards,” Patel told Fox News Digital. “This was the failure of a corrupt leadership that lied to Congress and to the American people about what really happened.”
He added, “Thanks to agents coming forward, we are now uncovering the truth. We are fully committed to transparency, and justice and accountability continues with this FBI.”
There’s no indication any FBI agents were involved in any events related to Trump’s speech on the morning of Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an FBI official told Fox News Digital, adding that Wray should have disclosed that agents were there when he was asked by congressional leaders.
FBI’S KASH PATEL VOWS ‘DEFINITIVE ANSWER’ ON TOP JAN 6 QUESTION IS ‘COMING’
The FBI responded on Saturday after President Donald Trump said that former FBI Director Christopher Wray “has some major explaining to do” following a report that said 274 plainclothes agents were at the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump, citing a report that the agents were in the crowd which did not make clear their mission, said earlier that Wray, “has some major explaining to do.”
“It was just revealed that the FBI had secretly placed, against all Rules, Regulations, Protocols, and Standards, 274 FBI Agents into the Crowd just prior to, and during, the January 6th Hoax,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday afternoon following a report from The Blaze, revealing the number of agents that were there.
Trump added, “This is different from what Director Christopher Wray stated, over and over again! That’s right, as it now turns out, FBI Agents were at, and in, the January 6th Protest, probably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists, but certainly not as ‘Law Enforcement Officials.’”
The president said he wanted to know each officer’s identity and what they were doing at the U.S. Capitol.
“Many Great American Patriots were made to pay a very big price only for the love of their Country,” he said, referring to Trump supporters who faced charges for their involvement on Jan. 6.
Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of every person charged for involvement on Jan. 6 after he took office this year.
DOJ INSPECTOR GENERAL DOES NOT DENY FBI INFORMANTS WERE AMONG JAN. 6 CROWD
Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 15, 2023, “If you are asking if the violence at the Capitol was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources or agents, the answer is no.” (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
He concluded, “I owe this investigation of ‘Dirty Cops and Crooked Politicians’ to them! Christopher Wray, the then Director of the FBI, has some major explaining to do. That’s two in a row, Comey and Wray, who got caught LYING, with our Great Country at stake. WE CAN NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN TO AMERICA AGAIN!”
Citing a senior congressional source, the Blaze report said that the number of agents wasn’t “necessarily a surprise” because the FBI often “embeds countersurveillance personnel at large events.”
Wray told a House Committee on Nov. 15, 2023, “If you are asking if the violence at the Capitol was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources or agents, the answer is no,” but he wouldn’t disclose if any agents or sources were embedded within the crowd.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that agents were sent to the Capitol on Jan. 6 for crowd control after it was declared a riot against agency policy. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The 274 agents also includes those who were responding to the pipe bombs placed near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters the night before Jan. 6, according to Politico.
Trump nominated Wray as FBI director in 2017 after he fired former FBI director James Comey, who was just indicted by a grand jury this week for allegedly making false statements to Congress.
FBI AGENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE TOLD TO RESIGN, RETIRE OR BE FIRED
A report released last December by Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said: “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,” although he acknowledged there were 26 paid informants, but only three of them were assigned by the FBI to be there.
The report also said that FBI personnel were sent to the Capitol at the request of overwhelmed Capitol Police to help with crowd control.
Horowitz said that none of the informants were allowed to incite the crowd, break the law or enter the U.S. Capitol.
Rioters and U.S. Capitol police battle over a barricade at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In its reporting, Blaze noted that there may have been confusion regarding “plainclothes” and “undercover,” meaning both the inspector general and the FBI could be telling the truth.
Many of the agents weren’t happy to have been sent to the Capitol to do crowd control, another official told Fox News Digital. It was a chaotic scene with no pre-planning that contradicted the agency’s original plan to not get involved in the event. The official said that agents are not trained to do crowd control.
The first agents arrived at the Capitol around 2:30 p.m. — there’s no evidence there were any there before a riot was declared — and agents continued to arrive after that, the official added.
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
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Wray had testified before Congress prior to the inspector general’s report being released in December, but Patel called out Wray for deflecting and giving a “D.C. answer” when pressed by lawmakers.
“Why it took a ton of time and questioning in Congress for the director to get that point is what I’m trying to eliminate from the FBI,” Patel said. “If Congress asks you a question under oath, whether or not there were sources in [or] around Jan. 6th at the Capitol, you as the director of the FBI need to know that and not deflect and give a D.C. answer. You have to be prepared for that.”
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
