For years, Americans have been asking a simple question about January 6: How many FBI agents were actually in those crowds? The answer we just got should make everyone's blood boil, not just because of how long it took for us to get this answer, but because of new questions it raises.
The FBI finally acknowledged to Congress that 274 plainclothes agents were embedded in the January 6 crowds in Washington. Let that sink in for a moment — nearly three hundred federal agents, mingling among protesters, and we're just hearing about this now?
But here's where it gets really infuriating. Just last December, the Department of Justice's own watchdog proudly announced there was "no evidence" of undercover FBI employees in the protest crowds. The Inspector General's report was crystal clear: no undercover agents at the Capitol on January 6. Period. End of story. We all knew better, of course, but it begs the question of why the truth was being covered up in the first place.
Blaze Media reported Thursday:
A senior congressional source said the number is not necessarily a surprise, since the FBI often embeds countersurveillance personnel at large events.
But given the FBI’s until-now steadfast refusal to disclose the level of its presence at the Capitol, the figure might still be viewed with skepticism in some quarters.
The news comes in the wake of claims by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General that the FBI had no undercover personnel in the Jan. 6 crowds.
“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 DOJ OIG said in an 88-page report released in December 2024.
Depending how one reads “undercover” agents versus “plainclothes agents,” both statements could be true.
The same report disclosed that 26 FBI confidential human sources were in the Jan. 6 crowds, four of whom entered the Capitol.
This disclosure comes after years of congressional Republicans like Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson demanding answers about the FBI's presence that day. Years of being told to sit down and shut up while the bureau claimed everything was above board. Years of watching January 6 defendants wonder if federal agents were among those encouraging the very behavior that landed regular Americans in prison — even those who didn’t enter the Capitol at all.
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The most maddening part of all this is that we still don't have the full picture. The FBI won't tell us what those 274 plainclothes agents were actually doing in those crowds. Were they just observing? Were they participating? Were any of them among the people encouraging others to enter the Capitol? We don't know, and based on the FBI's track record, we may never know. But I think it’s easy to conclude that there’s a significant reason the FBI covered this up for so long.
This isn't just about January 6 anymore. This is about trust in our institutions and whether the American people deserve straight answers from the agencies they fund with their tax dollars. For years, we've been told to accept the official narrative, to stop asking uncomfortable questions, and to trust that our government agencies are being honest with us.
But when it takes years to get basic facts about federal personnel deployment, when watchdog reports contradict bureau disclosures, when word games replace transparency, that trust evaporates quickly, especially after four years of Joe Biden violating the due process rights of those who were there.
The FBI had 274 agents in those crowds, and they waited until now to tell us. What else are they waiting to reveal?
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