Did FBI leaders want Trump supporters to attack the Capitol? Did the leaders of the Capitol police want this? I can’t say they did.
What I can say is that the FBI was long concerned about the possibility of post-election violence, and that throughout the Justice Department there was grave concern about that possibility on January 6. Yet, neither the FBI nor the Capitol police did anything to prevent the storming of the Capitol.
Before the election, it was widely understood within the FBI and elsewhere at the Justice Department that Donald Trump, on the strength of in-person voting, would likely have early leads in swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, but that mail-in voting might well flip these states to Joe Biden. I’m told the FBI was worried that the erosion of Trump’s leads might lead to violence by Trump supporters.
Violence at that juncture was never likely and did not occur. However, as January 6 approached and many thousands of Trump supporters were coming to D.C., it was clear that violence and/or the storming of government buildings was very possible.
Accordingly, I’m told that Justice Department officials advised the FBI and the Capitol police to set up a perimeter to protect the Capitol and to deploy a force sufficient to prevent an attack. But this didn’t happen. Indeed, it’s my understanding that the doors to the Capitol building weren’t even locked on January 6.
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