AP fact checks claim that 274 FBI agents were at the Jan 6 riots, claiming: So what if they were there?
The author is the same fact-checker who smeared me a couple of years ago
Since these agents were not stopping the events or arresting anyone, what WERE they doing in plainclothes at the Jan. 6 “riot”—and why did FBI Director Christopher Wray tell Congress that only 26 FBI “informants” were there? Or was it Cong. Massie who revealed the 26 informants?
If the 274 agents merely “responded” to the events, why weren’t they wearing their badges? Why didn’t they show up in all the videos?
And BTW, when is Wray’s statute of limitations up for lying to Congress?
Updated 5:07 PM EDT, September 29, 2025
President Donald Trump bolstered a years-old conspiracy theory over the weekend, claiming that 50 pages of alleged FBI documents recently made public prove that 274 FBI agents at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were there to incite the attack.
The documents first appeared in an article published Thursday by the conservative site Just The News, which did not blame the Jan. 6 insurrection on federal agents as Trump did. It focused instead on complaints made in an “after-action report” by FBI personnel, who were critical about the bureau’s response that day.
The information — which The Associated Press was not able to verify as authentic — does not support Trump’s claim. It says that FBI agents responded to the U.S. Capitol attack, not that those agents had any role in making it happen.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
TRUMP: “As it now turns out, FBI Agents were at, and in, the January 6th Protest, probably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists, but certainly not as ‘Law Enforcement Officials.’”
THE FACTS: This is false. The alleged FBI documents to which Trump is referring state on page 46 that 274 agents from the FBI’s Washington Field Office “responded to” to the U.S. Capitol and other nearby locations on Jan. 6. They do not contain any credible evidence to suggest that federal agents were acting as agitators or insurrectionists.
“This number includes agents that responded to the Capitol grounds as well as inside the Capitol, the pipe bombs, and the red truck that was believed to contain explosive devices as well as CDC/ADCs,” the documents read.
The mention of “pipe bombs” refers to the devices planted outside offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees in Washington on the eve of the attack, while “the red truck” refers to a pickup truck filled with weapons and Molotov cocktail components that was parked near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
In addition to information about the agents and other FBI staff who were deployed in response to the Jan. 6 attack, the documents include extensive feedback from alleged bureau personnel about how the FBI responded to the day’s events. There are also suggestions from different operational divisions for future best practices, as well as notes on what went well.
“President Trump is right to highlight this important issue that many Americans are still looking for answers on and that Democrats have spent years lying about and obstructing,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “The President is committed to justice and transparency for all Americans”
The FBI declined to comment.
Rioters determined to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, in a violent clash with police. Unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that federal agents played a role in instigating the attack became popular soon after and were advanced even by some Republicans in Congress. Many iterations have since been debunked.
A watchdog report published in December 2024 by the Justice Department inspector general’s office found that no undercover FBI employees (then did Wray make up the 26 he said were there?—Nass) were at the riot on Jan. 6 and that none of the bureau’s informants were authorized to participate. Informants, also known as confidential human sources, work with the FBI to provide information, but are not on the bureau’s payroll. (Melissa, get a grip. Who paid them to show up ?—Nass) Undercover agents are employed by the FBI.
It does state that “after the Capitol had been breached on Jan. 6 by the rioters, and in response to a request from the USCP, the FBI deployed several hundred Special Agents and employees to the U.S. Capitol and the surrounding area.” USCP refers to the U.S. Capitol Police.
According to the report, 26 informants were in Washington on Jan. 6 in connection with the day’s events. Of the total 26 informants, four entered the Capitol during the riot and an additional 13 entered a restricted area around the Capitol. But none were authorized to do so by the FBI, nor were they given permission to break other laws or encourage others to do the same. The remaining nine informants did not engage in any illegal activities.
It wasn’t clear prior to the report’s release how many FBI informants were in the crowd that day. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who resigned in January at the end of the Biden administration, refused to say during a congressional hearing in 2023 how many of the people who entered the Capitol and surrounding area on Jan. 6 were either FBI employees or people with whom the FBI had made contact. But Wray said the “notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous.”___
Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
Goldin debunks, analyzes and tracks misinformation for The Associated Press. She is based in New York.
Jan 6th is reminiscent to the Governor Whitmer kidnapping, and other entrapment operations with Muslim men where the FBI orchestrates some plot, finds some poor/uneducated folks to take part, and then busts them so that they can promote the narrative that they want to put out, like that there is a rise in right wing extremists violence or a rise in Muslim terrorism, etc. I suspect that there were probably even more FBI confidential human sources than there were FBI agents on Jan 6th.
Wouldn’t it be unusual not to use the National Guard vs. the FBI if there was a real substantiated threat of rioting? Yet they weren’t called in. We need FBI Whistleblowers to inform us of their mission and training. Maybe they would be able to keep their job after being investigated if they decided to tell the truth of their part in the betrayal and suffering of many families. It would be no less than the politicization of every agency under Obama’s influence.
No badges worn for the FBI didn’t mean crowd control. It meant conspiracy.
And…any Police who committed suicide may well have been because they were asked to abandon their ethical code and turn against their fellow American citizens. We can see the set up beforehand and the dirty plays of Pelosi, etc,
Mayor Broward also helped in this set-up imo and should be investigated and carted off to jail for the combined sentences of all Patriots. So should the slam dunk Judges. It was all planned as usual. I remember a person who wanted to attend saying Broward had invited everybody into the Capitol via Social Media. Then it was rescinded, which sowed confusion. Thousands of people who attended found eating places and restroom facilities closed. It was a hostile set-up.