Internal bureau documents show federal law enforcement anticipated post-election violence, outlined infiltration and prosecution strategies, and warned of foreign interference well before the Capitol riot.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The FBI quietly conducted a classified tabletop exercise in the summer of 2020 examining how political violence might unfold after a disputed presidential election, outlining tactics later deployed following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, according to internal memos recently released to Congress and reported by Just the News.
The long-secret documents were turned over last week by FBI Director Kash Patel in response to a congressional request, offering new insight into how federal law enforcement viewed the risk of election-related unrest months before Americans went to the polls. The materials show the bureau was actively preparing for scenarios involving mass prosecutions, extensive use of confidential informants, and aggressive law-enforcement responses to even minor criminal activity.
According to the memos, the FBI’s Boston Field Office led the tabletop exercise and compiled open-source intelligence assessing threats from a wide spectrum of actors, including left-leaning anarchist groups and right-wing extremists. An August 2020 assessment warned that domestic violent extremist threats tied to the election were likely to intensify as Election Day approached.
“The FBI assesses domestic violent extremist threats related to the 2020 elections likely will increase as the election approaches,” one memo stated, adding that “election-related threats” could include attacks on candidates, campaign events, party offices, elected officials, voter registration efforts, and actions tied to disputed outcomes.
The documents also flagged foreign governments as potential catalysts for domestic unrest. One memo said that as of mid-July 2020, China, Iran, and Russia appeared to have encouraged illegal activity and violence in the event of a contested U.S. election, particularly through social-media-driven influence operations. The assessment cited analysis from the Foreign Policy Research Institute and said Beijing and Tehran were motivated by a desire to undermine U.S. democratic processes.
Those warnings contrast with public assertions from several left-leaning advocacy groups and legacy media outlets at the time, which dismissed concerns about foreign election interference as conspiracy theories. The FBI’s internal assessments, however, treated the threat as credible and ongoing.
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray briefly referenced the existence of the exercise during June 2021 congressional testimony following the Capitol riot, but the memos themselves were not provided to lawmakers until after a request last year from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on January 6.
Loudermilk said the documents show the bureau anticipated the possibility of an attack on the Capitol as early as September 2020 yet failed to adequately warn or prepare Capitol security ahead of Jan. 6.
“This document is evidence that Wray’s FBI predicted, as early as September 2020, that an attack on the Capitol was possible,” Loudermilk said. “It also suggests that the FBI infiltrate online chat forums and build a network of Confidential Human Sources prior to January 6. It further outlines how the FBI should pursue heavy-handed prosecutions for minor offenses, which Biden’s DOJ carried out quite effectively after the attack.”
The memos detail concerns that a contentious election dispute could prime certain groups for future violence, potentially triggered by what agents described as “the next major social upheaval or event.” To counter that risk, the Boston office recommended building a “robust source base” embedded within potentially violent groups to enable early detection and disruption of planning.
The assessment also advocated for strong law-enforcement action against even minimal criminal conduct. “A strong and effective law enforcement response to even minimal criminal activity, along with community messaging that violence will not be tolerated, may dissuade those looking to take the next step to violent action,” the memo concluded.
Those strategies were later reflected in the federal response to Jan. 6. Internal complaints from FBI personnel indicated that roughly two dozen informants were embedded in the crowd that day and more than 250 agents were deployed, as Just the News previously reported. Thousands of prosecutions followed, many involving charges such as misdemeanor trespassing.
Critics argue those cases were subsequently used to inflate domestic violent extremism threat statistics, helping justify an expanded federal law-enforcement posture that later encompassed groups such as traditional Catholics and parents speaking at school board meetings.
The Biden administration’s June 2021 “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism” echoed language from the FBI’s August 2020 assessment, citing Jan. 6 as evidence of an elevated domestic threat. The document did not note that, unlike previous domestic terrorist attacks, the Jan. 6 riot resulted in no deaths caused by the rioters themselves.
The newly released memos have renewed scrutiny of what federal agencies knew in advance of Jan. 6, how they prepared, and why warnings did not translate into more robust protective measures at the Capitol on the day of the attack.
Original article
Comments