JAN. 6 ATTACK ON THE CAPITOLPlanned in Plain Sight
Beginning in December 2020, the FBI and DHS I&A were receiving increasingly detailed, and worrisome, information – from informers, encrypted chat rooms, and other sources — that Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other far-right violent extremist groups supporting then-President Donald Trump were planning attacks on the Capitol and other federal buildings in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transition of power to the winner of the November election, Joe Biden. Despite the dire nature of the information, the FBI and I&A failed to issue sufficient warnings to the Capitol police, DC police, and other frontline personnel based on, and reflecting, the available intelligence indicating January 6th might turn violent.
The January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol was an unprecedented attempt to prevent the certification of a duly elected president, and disrupt the U.S. long history of peaceful transitions of power. The attack followed months of persistent, brazen lies by former President Donald Trump, his lawyers, and certain elected officials, advancing the fiction that the presidential election was stolen. A new Senate panel’s report found that agencies tasked with security on January 6th failed to adequately prepare for the Joint Session of Congress and quickly respond to the attack.
The report is titled Planned in Plain Sight: A Review of the Intelligence Failures in Advance of January 6th, 2021.
Here is the report’s Executive Summary
On January 6, 2021, rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented effort to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election and our nation’s long history of peaceful transitions of power. The attack followed months of repeated and false claims by former President Donald Trump, his lawyers, and certain elected officials, that the presidential election was stolen, culminating in President Trump’s call during his speech at the Ellipse in front of the White House on January 6th for his supporters to march to the Capitol. During the violent attack, individuals dragged a police officer into the crowd and beat him, struck another officer with a flagpole attached to an American flag, hit another police officer with a fire extinguisher, and damaged the Capitol Building. Rioters committed hundreds of assaults on law enforcement officers, temporarily delayed the Joint Session of Congress, and contributed to the deaths of at least nine individuals.
