A new Senate committee report sharply criticizes the FBI and Department of Homeland Security for for discounting all the intelligence tips they were receiving in the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — with even more examples of warnings and information that were ignored. Via The Washington Post:
The report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s majority staff, titled “Planned in Plain Sight,” expands on previous findings, including reporting by The Washington Post, about red flags missed in the weeks leading up to the pro-Trump riot that delayed Joe Biden’s certification as president.
It also contains additional instances and context for what the authors describe as a failure by federal intelligence officials to believe the many warnings they received.
The 105-page report said the FBI and DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis “failed to fully and accurately assess the severity of the threat identified by that intelligence, and formally disseminate guidance to their law enforcement partners with sufficient urgency and alarm to enable those partners to prepare for the violence that ultimately occurred on January 6th.”
In the days leading up to the insurrection, I saw the kinds of things they're talking about. Anyone who monitors the right wing could see the signs. But the one thing that really scared me was a post by a Trump supporter directing those with guns to go to a particular checkpoint where they'd have no problem getting through.
Which indicated an accomplice either in the National Guard or the local police.
I showed it to Karoli and said, "The FBI is monitoring this stuff, right? RIGHT?" She couldn't imagine that they weren't. But as it turned out, while the Norfolk FBI office was monitoring it, the main office was treating it as... silly? Potential PR problem?
The report separately found that the DHS office tasked with analyzing intelligence was reluctant to issue warnings related to Jan. 6, in part because of criticism the agency had received for its handling of intelligence related to protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd the previous summer.
One DHS analyst messaged a colleague on Jan. 3 saying “there are threats” but “our threshold is just very high now.”
