Nearly three years after the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, the House Judiciary Committee continues to learn about what went on that day. During a transcribed interview with former Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Washington Field Office (WFO) Steven D'Antuono, it was revealed that there had been confidential human sources (CHS) from other field offices, as well as other informants who went on their own accord. Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has thus sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray for oversight on the FBI about their use of CHSs. Jordan had previously sent a letter to Wray on November 30, 2022 about CHSs.
When asked by Jordan during a closed doors hearing on June 7, 2023 that "you now know that there were CHSs that the FBI knew ahead of time were going to be here on January 6th and that there were also some unknown CHSs who, on their own accord, decided to come here on January 6th," D'Antuono responded with "that is my belief, yeah."
🚨🚨🚨 FBI lost count of how many paid informants were at Capitol on Jan. 6https://t.co/TUTKofWN9W
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) September 19, 2023
As Jordan's letter began to Wray by recapping, there was so much confusion about how many CHSs were there that the FBI had to do a "poll" to determine the number, as D'Antuono revealed.
Because there were so many CHSs present, the WFO asked headquarters "to do a poll or put out something to people saying w[ere] any CHSs involved" so the FBI could try to figure out how many of their people had been there. "D’Antuono
stated after the outreach from Headquarters was 'when we started getting responses back,'" Jordan's letter noted.
That news doesn't exactly inspire confidence in how the FBI handles itself.v
"This new information is extremely concerning. It suggests that the FBI cannot adequately track the activities and operations of its informants, and that it lost control of its CHSs present at the Capitol on January 6," Jordan's letter pointed out. "These revelations reinforce existing concerns, identified by Special Counsel Durham, about the FBI’s use of, and payment to, CHSs who have fabricated evidence and misrepresented information. The Justice Department Inspector General also identified critical problems in the FBI’s CHS program, including the FBI’s failure to fully vet CHSs and the FBI’s willingness to ignore red flags that would call into question an informant’s reliability."
The New York Post's Miranda Devine, who received an exclusive on the letter, highlighted some of the concerns with having FBI informants at the Capitol that day:
The FBI had so many paid informants at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that they lost track of the number and had to perform a later audit to determine exactly how many “Confidential Human Sources” run by different FBI field offices were present that day, a former assistant director of the bureau has told lawmakers.
At least one informant was communicating with his FBI handler as he entered the Capitol, according to Steven D’Antuono, formerly 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 riot that some of their informants would attend a “Stop the Steal” rally thrown by former President Donald Trump but he only learned after the fact that informants run by other field offices also were present, along with others who had participated of their own accord.
...
The number of FBI informants present during the Capitol riot has long been a controversial topic at trials of the hundreds of defendants apprehended since that day.
Defense lawyers at the trial of five “Proud Boys” recently asserted that the FBI had as many as eight informants spying on the organization and that at least one was with them at the Capitol that day.
Former Capitol Hill Police Chief Steven Sund has said that, in addition to the paid informants, the FBI had at least 18 undercover agents in the crowd plus an estimated 20 from the Department of Homeland Security.
In addition to renewing his request from that November 30 letter, Jordan is asking for new information, including FD-1023 source reporting not only to do with the events at the Capitol on January 6, but Christopher Steele as well. This includes "all subsequent reporting provided by Christopher Steele to Justice Department official Bruce Ohr" and FD-1023 source reporting documents on Igor Danchenko and CHS-1.
Another ask includes for Wray to "[p]rovide a substantive briefing on how the FBI utilized CHSs at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and any specific guidelines or admonishments that were provided to FBI CHSs prior to deploying."
Jordan expects a response by October 3.