The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to adequately assess and warn law enforcement agencies about the level of threat the Capitol faced on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a new Senate report.
The report (pdf), drafted by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, details how the FBI and DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis failed to “fully and accurately assess the severity” of the event despite receiving multiple tips in the days and weeks leading up to the breach.
“Despite the high volume of tips and online traffic about the potential for violence—some of which the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Intelligence and Analysis were aware of as early as December 2020—these agencies failed to sound the alarm and share critical intelligence information that could have helped law enforcement better prepare for the events of January 6th, 2021,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the committee’s chairman, said in a June 27 statement.
‘Shocking’ Failure
In the months following the Capitol breach, Peters led a Senate investigation of the security, planning, and response failures that contributed to the chaos on Jan. 6. The second investigation homed in on the intelligence failures that preceded the event.
According to the report, the FBI and the Department of Justice received relevant information from multiple sources prior to the breach, including tips and social media posts that suggested violence might break out.
One such tip the report cites warned that the Proud Boys would be in Washington on Jan. 6 and planned to “literally kill people.” Other examples included a tip about a TikTok video of someone holding a gun, urging people to “storm the Capitol” on Jan. 6, and a Parler post that encouraged protesters to set up an armed encampment on the National Mall.
Despite this and other collected intelligence, the FBI “continued to downplay the overall threat,” the report charges, citing internal emails in which agents had indicated the bureau “identified no credible or verified threat.”
