Breaking news from CNN this morning about the FBI infiltrating a group led by a Capitol riot suspect in northern Virginia. Members of that group talked about surveilling the Capitol, testing homemade bombs and also seceding from the U.S.
"Basically here's the deal," Whitney Wild said.
"There's this guy Fi Duong FBI agents undercover contacted. They basically investigated him for a series of months. What they found was he was part of this group of people who were under the guise of a Bible study group although in some meetings the FBI said they were talking about the Bible, but really they were talking about how to secede from the United States, they were talking about weapons and training, and this man, Fi Duong, is actually accused of having played a role in the insurrection.
"FBI agents say that he went into the Capitol and so now he's facing four charges related to that. But what they found through the course of their investigation, Brianna, is he had this stash of weapons in Alexandria. And so he was -- wanted to create and test Molotov cocktails. He was among this group of people discussing surveilling the Capitol and looking for weaknesses, trying to effect a secession from the United States in Virginia. The attorney didn't have a comment. He has not been indicted for any alleged crimes that happened after January 6, just the ones that happened on January 6.
"Sounds like he fancied himself, according to the court documents, a bit of an operator," Keilar said.
"I don't want to overstate his abilities when it came to tradecraft. but there seemed to be a lot of -- there was this encrypted element of communications. There was the surveillance. When you look back to January 6, it appears he's trying to dress like antifa, which he obviously is not."
"He told law enforcement he was this sort of operator in this space. This had some level of organization and that actually plays into this greater theme we've been talking about so much here at CNN, which is there were these groups who apparently, according to these court records, perhaps continuing trying to organize and effect these crimes against the United States.
"So while this organization is not facing the type of crimes we saw like Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, it is a reminder that these ideas and inclinations are extending beyond January 6 and people are acting on them."
