Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said this week that he believes that once the new Trump administration is in place next month, much will be revealed about the actions of federal law enforcement during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Cruz’s remarks come after the inspector general for the Department of Justice said in a report released on Thursday that the FBI had at least 26 informants at the event in Washington, D.C., that day.
Cruz said that Trump’s nominees for U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, will shed new light on what happened that day once they get into their new roles.
“What the report says is the FBI didn’t instruct them to encourage others to commit crimes,” Cruz said. “I believe we will know much, much more about this in the next couple of months, once we have Pam Bondi and Kash Patel confirmed, I think they will release significantly more information to the public.”
“I think they both understand the public has a right to know what was the FBI’s level of involvement, what was the culpability?” he continued. “I think there is significant public interest in the answers to that. And I think the Biden Department of Justice desperately wants to avoid anyone from knowing that. But you know what? The Democrats lost the election, and elections have consequences.”
Informants, or confidential human sources (CHSs) as they are called by the U.S. government, are used by law enforcement for various investigations, yet the sheer number of them suspected to have been in the crowd on January 6 has fueled concerns about intelligence failures and doubts about whether they acted appropriately.
The new report said the inspector general’s team determined three informants were tasked by FBI field offices in the days leading up to the January 6 certification of the presidential election results with the “required approval” by the FBI’s Washington Field Office to travel to D.C. for events to report on “domestic terrorism subjects” who were possibly going to be in attendance.
A review by the watchdog found that these three CHSs and another 23 FBI informants who were in D.C. for January 6 events did not receive authorization to enter the Capitol or a restricted area, “or to otherwise break the law” on January 6. The inspector general’s report also stressed that none of the informants were directed by the FBI to “encourage others” to commit illegal acts on January 6.
However, the inspector general’s team determined, four informants entered the Capitol during the riot and another 13 of them entered a restricted area around the building, “which was a security perimeter established in preparation for” the certification process. Despite this finding, none of the CHSs have been prosecuted to date, the watchdog added.
A footnote in the report included a response from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., which said it “generally has not charged those individuals whose only crime on January 6, 2021 was to enter the restricted grounds surrounding the Capitol, which has resulted in the Office declining to charge hundreds of individuals; and we have treated the CHSs consistent with this approach.”
The report said the inspector general’s team determined that “many” of the informants provided “relevant” information related to the January 6 electoral certification and a few also gave details about the riot as it occurred. Information provided included particulars related to the Oath Keepers, some of whom were later found guilty of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to prison.
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