New Disclosure
FBI Admits: We had 275 Plainclothes Agents in Jan. 6 Crowds
FBI tells Congress it had 275 plainclothes agents embedded in Jan. 6 crowds - a disclosure that raises fresh questions about the agency’s role and prompts renewed congressional scrutiny
The FBI has informed Congress that 275 plainclothes agents were embedded in the crowds that gathered in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, more than four and a half years after the charge on the U.S. Capitol, Blaze News reports.
The disclosure answers a long-running question about the bureau’s presence that day but does not, according to the report, spell out what those agents did during the events.
That new figure arrives against the background of a December 2024 Justice Department Office of the Inspector General (DOJ OIG) review that found no evidence the FBI placed undercover employees in the crowd or authorized informants to commit or encourage illegal acts on Jan. 6. The OIG report concluded there were intelligence and coordination shortcomings prior to the riot but rejected the conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the attack.
The OIG’s review did say there were 26 confidential human sources (informants) in Washington for Jan. 6; some of those sources entered restricted areas or the Capitol, but the report found they had not been authorized by the FBI to do so and were not directed to break the law. That finding has been repeatedly cited in media coverage and fact-checks that sought to debunk claims the agency fomented the violence.
Blaze’s disclosure, which cites a senior congressional source and notes that embedding counter-surveillance personnel at large events is a common FBI practice, appears to be a separate but related set of information about the bureau’s operational posture on Jan. 6.