As FBI probed Jan. 6, many agents sympathized with insurrection, according to newly released email
As FBI probed Jan. 6, many agents sympathized with insurrection, according to newly released email
Will Carless, USA TODAY
Sat, October 15, 2022 at 2:01 AM
In this article:
- Paul AbbateAmerican law enforcement officer
A “sizable percentage” of FBI employees felt sympathy towards the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, and considered the riot at the U.S. Capitol “no different than the BLM protests,” according to a warning email sent to a top FBI official by someone with apparent connections to the bureau.
In the email, which is included in a trove of documents released by the bureau this week, the sender’s name is redacted. The documents indicate the message came from an email address outside the bureau, though the subject line is “Internal concerns.”
The email was sent to Paul Abbate, now the second highest official at the FBI, who responded an hour later, thanking the sender for the message.
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The Jan. 13, 2021, email contained a stark warning about attitudes toward the insurrection within the bureau:
“I literally had to explain to an agent from a ‘blue state’ office the difference between opportunists burning and looting during protests that stemmed legitimate grievance to police brutality vs. an insurgent mob whose purpose was to prevent the execution of democratic processes at the behest of a sitting president,” the email states. “One is a smattering of criminals, the other is an organized group of domestic terrorists.”
And it relayed concerns from agents within the bureau:
“I’ve spoken to multiple African American agents who have turned down asks to join SWAT because they do not trust that every member of their office’s SWAT team would protect them in an armed conflict.”
More: Police were warned about right-wing extremism as far back as 2009
Michael German, a former FBI special agent and a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program at New York University and an outspoken critic of the bureau, said the email didn’t surprise him.Story continues
