By Steve Neavling
The FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies received a plethora of detailed and credible tips about potential violence on Jan. 6, but they failed to act ahead of the insurrection, The Washington Post reports.
In one case, the FBI received a tip on Dec. 20 that supporters of then-President Trump were discussing ways to sneak in guns to Washington D.C. to “overrun” police and kidnap members of Congress. Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican whom Trump often criticized, was one of the targets.
The tips continued to come in, many that were very specific and detailed, but the FBI failed to act.
While the FBI passed the information to law enforcement agencies in Washington, agents didn’t pursue the threats themselves.
“The individual or group identified during the Assessment does not warrant further FBI investigation at this time,” an internal bureau report concluded at the time.
Despite all of tips, top officials wrongly suspected that the biggest threat was for violence between Trump supporters and Trump opponents.
“The paralysis that led to one of the biggest security failures in the nation’s history was driven by unique breakdowns inside each law enforcement agency and was exacerbated by the patchwork nature of security across a city where responsibilities are split between local and federal authorities,” The Post wrote.
