The FBI had so many paid informants at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, that they lost track of the numbers and had to conduct a later audit to determine exactly how many “Confidential Human Resources” operated by different FBI field offices were present that day, a former the bureau’s assistant director has told lawmakers.
At least one informant was communicating with his FBI handler as he entered the Capitol, according to Steven D’Antuono, who was once in charge of the bureau’s Washington field office.
D’Antuono has testified behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee that his office was aware before the riots that some of their informants would attend a “Stop Theft” rally thrown by former President Donald Trump but that he only learned after the fact that informants handled by the office— other field officers were also present, along with others who had participated of their own volition.
The Washington field office had to ask FBI headquarters “to do a poll or issue something to people who said w[ere] any CHS involved,” he said, so they could deal with the scale of the FBI’s spying operation at the Capitol that day.
“We’re starting to get feedback again” from FBI headquarters, D’Antuono added, which helps identify which field offices have placed confidential informants in the public eye.
According to a former FBI official, the bureau needs to conduct an audit to find out how many paid informants it had during the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File
A paid informant from the Kansas City field office was at the Capitol as the crowd poured in and was allegedly communicating with his FBI handlers, “while they were in the crowd, I think, saying they were coming in,” according to the former bureau brass.
“They’re trying to stop some action going on and they’re leaving or something.”
Asked how many whistleblowers the audit found were in the crowd that day, D’Antuono would only say “a handful”.
The FBI spends an average of $42 million annually in payments to its Confidential Human Resources, according to the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, which has raised concerns about the vetting process for these paid informants.
Steven D’Antuono, former head of the FBI’s Washington field office, said there are “a handful” of paid whistleblowers in the Capitol.Sarah Silbiger/Pool via REUTERS
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Tuesday, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), described D’Antuono’s testimony as “deeply troubling.”
It suggested that “the FBI was unable to adequately track the activities and operations of its informants, and it lost control of its CHS who was present at the Capitol on January 6,” he wrote.
“These revelations reinforce existing concerns, identified by the Special Adviser [John] Durham, about the FBI’s use of, and payments to, CHS who fabricated evidence and misrepresented information.
“The head of the Justice Department also identified critical problems in the FBI’s CHS program,” Jordan added, “including the FBI’s failure to fully vet CHS and the FBI’s willingness to ignore red flags that would call into question the whistleblower’s credibility.”
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021. AFP via Getty Images
Jordan has asked Wray to provide a “substantive briefing” on how the FBI uses paid informants by January 6, 2021, and “any specific guidelines or reprimands given to FBI CHS prior to use”.
Wray has also been asked to produce all explanatory documents received from Capitol riot whistleblowers.
Jordan also wants source reporting documentation related to former British spy Christopher Steele, who was responsible for the “now-famous dossier of false allegations of Trump-Russia collusion.”
The number of FBI informants present during the Capitol riots has long been a topic of controversy in the trials of the hundreds of defendants arrested since that day.
According to D’Antuono, at least one informant was communicating with an FBI operator when he entered the Capitol building.REUTERS/Ahmed Gaber/File Photo
Defense attorneys at the recent trial of the five “Proud Boys” asserted that the FBI had as many as eight informants spying on the organization and at least one was with them at the Capitol that day.
Former Capitol Hill Police Chief Steven Sund said that in addition to paid informants, the FBI has at least 18 undercover agents in the group and an estimated 20 from the Department of Homeland Security.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
