FBI Had 26 Confidential Human Sources At J6 Events

More than two dozen confidential human sources (CHS) were in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a new report the Justice Department inspector general released on Thursday.

Twenty-six CHSs were present in total, and the inspector general said that 11 of these “entered the restricted area around the Capitol.” At least one informant entered the Capitol amid the riot, and the FBI reimbursed that individual’s travel expenses.

While the Justice Department confirmed the FBI’s deployment of confidential sources at events related to Jan. 6, the inspector general denied “any CHS [was] directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6.”

The presence of FBI informants at the Capitol had long been dismissed by legacy media as another conspiracy of independent media. In December last year, CNN’s Abby Phillip tried to fact-check then-Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy at a network town hall when the candidate brought up the existence of FBI informants at events related to Jan. 6.

“The reality is we know that there were federal law enforcement agents in that building; we don’t know how many,” Ramaswamy said.

“I’m going to go ahead and interrupt you here,” Phillip interjected, “you’re saying that there were federal agents on January 6th. There is no evidence that there were federal agents in the crowd on January 6th.”

By that point, however, the presence of FBI informants and assets had been reported by The New York Times and Newsweek, the latter of which said the Justice Department deployed special commandos with “shoot-to-kill authority.”

Senior leadership at the FBI meanwhile repeatedly stonewalled House and Senate lawmakers’ questions related to the FBI’s use of informants on Jan. 6.

“How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6?” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked Jill Sanborn, the executive assistant director for the FBI’s National Security Branch, a year after the riot.

“I can’t go into the specifics of sources and methods,” she said.

More recently, FBI Director Christopher Wray, who announced on Wednesday that he will step down next month, refused to answer similar questions.

“I’m never going to be getting into when and where we have or have not, or have not used confidential human sources,” Wray said this summer.

[RELATED: Good Riddance, Christopher Wray]

In March, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned after the riot, said he was also left in the dark about the presence of federal informants in the crowd. In an interview with the D.C. radio station WMAL, Sund called the lack of disclosure “concerning.”