The FBI and other law enforcement agencies did not react despite the amount of information they had received before 6 January, which indicated that it was likely to be violent incidents that day at the Capitol, according to a Washington Post article.
On December 20, the FBI received information that supporters of then-President Donald Trump were discussing online how to put hidden weapons in Washington to “overtake” the police and arrest members of Congress, according to internal documents of the agency.
This information included details indicating that those who planned the violent incidents believed they had been instructed by the president. They used code words such as “pickaxes” to describe the weapons and posted the time and location of the motorcades to meet the day before the congressional hearing. One website specifically targeted Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.
Romney was one of seven Republican senators who voted in favor of Trump’s conviction last February on the charge of incitement. This is the second time the House of Representatives has referred Trump to a Senate hearing.
An FBI agent who analyzed the information noted that the crime service had already received a “significant number” of warnings about threats to Congress and government officials. The FBI shared the information with the Washington law enforcement agencies, but did not further investigate the case, according to the report.
“The person or group identified during the assessment does not warrant further FBI investigation at this time,” the internal report said.
The report was based on interviews with more than 230 people, thousands of pages of court documents and law enforcement reports, and hundreds of videos, photos, and recorded conversations.
A congressional panel is investigating what happened that day when protesters in a pro-Trump rally stormed Congress, which was meeting to ratify Joe Biden’s election victory. Four people were killed that day. More than 100 police officers were injured and one of them died the next day. Four police officers have committed suicide to date.
Authorities have prosecuted more than 600 people suspected of involvement in the violence.
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