FBI Reportedly Finds No Evidence That Jan. 6 Was a Coordinated Event: 'There Was No Grand Scheme'
The Capitol incursion on Jan. 6 was a largely uncoordinated eruption and not a planned effort to overturn the 2020 election, according to a new report.
The Reuters report Friday morning cited what it said were “four current and former law enforcement officials” who were “directly involved in or briefed regularly on the wide-ranging investigations” conducted by the FBI.
After hundreds of interviews and the arrest of more than 570 people, the FBI found no evidence of a central organization to the incursion, the report said.
“Ninety to ninety-five percent of these are one-off cases,” Reuters quoted what it said was “a former senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation” as saying.
“Then you have five percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized,” the official said.
“But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages.”
JUST IN – FBI at this point believes the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups, Trump, or prominent supporters, but has found “scant evidence” it was an “organized plot”.https://t.co/luLqD3lFPM
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 20, 2021
The report said the FBI has found that amid the vast mob of protesters at the Capitol, there were some who came with a well-coordinated plan for breaking into the building.
[firefly_poll]
According to Reuters, prosecutors allege that “one Proud Boy leader recruited members and urged them to stockpile bulletproof vests and other military-style equipment in the weeks before the attack and on Jan. 6 sent members forward with a plan to split into groups and make multiple entries to the Capitol.”
WRC-TV reported this week that the website WashingtonTunnels.com had a spike in traffic in the days preceding the incursion.
Trump supporters looked up the tunnel system beneath the Capitol five days before the 1/6 attack, which suggests planning and coordination. pic.twitter.com/3eCyhmIOjV
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 18, 2021
However, the Reuters report said, any next steps to be taken after entry into the Capitol were hazy at best.
Prosecutors have filed conspiracy charges against 40 people they claim were involved in some degree of planning for the Jan. 6 incursion.
Although Democrats have tried to link a speech that day by then-President Donald Trump to the incident, the FBI investigation has cleared Trump and his aides of any connection to the eruption of violence, Reuters reported.
The former president has long denied any role in the events of that day.
Amid the many charges filed to date, including more than 170 allegations of either assaulting or impeding a police officer, there is no plan for more serious charges such as seditious conspiracy or plotting an overthrow of the government, the report said.
Although such charges were discussed at one point, those no longer appear on the table, nor do any massive conspiracy charges accusing any single person or entity of planning the incursion, Reuters reported.
The results of the FBI investigation have been shared with what Reuters labeled “senior lawmakers.” According to Reuters, a Democratic congressional source said those lawmakers find the report “credible.”
House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have created a commission to have their own investigation of the incursion.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
