The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) deployed a significant number of agents to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, many of whom later complained that the bureau was driven by political bias, according to an after-action report obtained by Just The News.
The 50-page document shows the FBI sent agents to the Capitol during the riot, including inside the building, without clear instructions, Just The News reported on Thursday. The report, located by FBI Director Kash Patel’s team, was recently turned over to the House Judiciary Committee’s special subcommittee investigating the incident, according to the outlet.
In anonymous assessments submitted after the Jan. 6 attack, rank-and-file employees accused the bureau, under former Directors James Comey and Chris Wray, of being influenced by politics.
“Our response to the Capitol Riot reeks of political bias,” one agent wrote, according to the report, while another said that agents had “been used as pawns in a political war, and FBI leadership fell into the trap and has allowed it to happen.”
“We are supposed to call balls and strikes, regardless of political pressure, now we can’t even be trusted to be on the field,” another employee wrote.
The report disclosed for the first time that the FBI had a total of 274 agents deployed to the Capitol after violence erupted. Wray, who preceded Patel as FBI director, declined to tell Congress how many, if any, agents were on the ground at the time, according to Just The News.
Many of the complaints came from agents within the bureau’s Washington field office (WFO).
“WFO is a hopelessly broken office that’s more concerned about wearing masks and recruiting preferred racial/sexual groups than catching actual bad guys,” one employee wrote.
Agents also described being thrown into the chaos with no clear instructions, no protective gear and no way to identify themselves to other law enforcement officers.
“I wish you all would pay more attention to our safety than what type of masks we wear. If you are going to deploy us to a riot situation, then give us the proper damn safety equipment–helmet, face shield, protective clothing–and training!” one employee wrote.
Other agents blasted what they called a blatant double standard between Jan. 6 prosecutions and the less aggressive approach to the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020.
“The actions on January 6, 2021 were absolutely despicable and unacceptable in a civilized society. What is even more unacceptable was the hypocrisy displayed by the FBI and its leadership in their attempt to go after those involved in the Capitol Riots, while we as agents, watched cities burn across America during the summer of 2020,” one agent said.
“The conspiracy to commit crimes at the Capitol on January 6th, were also committed by bad actors during the summer riots of 2020 leading up to the election on November 3, 2020. Agents stood by on the ground in Washington, D.C. and observed stores being looted, burned, and ripped of anything of value,” the agent wrote.
While the FBI declined the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment, Patel posted on X Friday that the bureau is “continuing to deliver on our promise of ultra transparency.”
“The only reason you have answers is because we are finding and producing materials exposing corruption at record levels. Thank you to the men and women @FBI once again delivering for the American people,” Patel wrote. “No one else is on Mission like we are.”
The after-action report also highlighted growing frustration with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which one agent accused of pushing politically motivated cases.
“Currently, the US Attorneys office is dictating what it is that gets investigated. This is a dangerous precedent because we can barely get them to prosecute investigations that clearly meet thresholds needed for Federal prosecutions,” one agent wrote. “However, their willingness to conduct a search warrant on someone’s life for a misdemeanor seems ridiculous. It is unreasonable for the FBI to conduct investigations involving misdemeanor violations at a federal level … it is not our role.”
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued over 1,500 “full, complete and unconditional” pardons to people who were involved in the Capitol riot. The action fulfilled a long-standing promise made by Trump during the 2024 campaign.
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