‘Crowd control mission’: FBI director Kash Patel on agents’ role at January 6 riots; calls out ‘failure of corrupt leadership’

The clarified its involvement during the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot on Saturday, while sharply criticising former director for allegedly misleading Congress, following claims that 274 plainclothes agents were present at the scene.

Officials cited by said that the agents were deployed after the riot had already begun to assist in controlling the crowd—a mission outside standard FBI duties.


“Agents were sent into a crowd control mission after the riot was declared by Metro Police – something that goes against FBI standards,” said director Kash Patel, as per Fox News.

He added, “This was the failure of a corrupt leadership that lied to Congress and to the American people about what really happened.”

Patel emphasised that the FBI is committed to transparency, noting, “Thanks to agents coming forward, we are now uncovering the truth. We are fully committed to transparency, and justice and accountability continues with this FBI”.

While the agents were present at the Capitol, officials stressed there is no evidence they were involved in Trump’s morning speech at the Ellipse, and that none acted unlawfully during the riot.

Many agents were responding to pipe bombs discovered near the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters the night before January 6, according to Fox News.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday accused Wray of lying about the agents’ presence. “It was just revealed that the FBI had secretly placed, against all Rules, Regulations, Protocols, and Standards, 274 FBI Agents into the Crowd just prior to, and during, the January 6th Hoax,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He further claimed that the agents were “probably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists, but certainly not as ‘Law Enforcement Officials’”.

Trump demanded the identities of the agents and their actions during the riot, adding, “Many Great American Patriots were made to pay a very big price only for the love of their Country. I owe this investigation of ‘Dirty Cops and Crooked Politicians’ to them!”.

As per Fox News, the first FBI agents arrived at the Capitol around 2:30 pm (local time), after the riot was declared, and continued arriving thereafter. An official said agents were unhappy with the crowd control assignment, noting, “agents are not trained to do crowd control”.

The justice department inspector general had earlier found no evidence of FBI undercover employees in protest crowds at the Capitol on January 6 but acknowledged 26 paid informants were present in Washington, DC, with only three formally assigned to the events.

Trump’s attack on Wray comes shortly after a federal grand jury indictment of James Comey, Wray’s predecessor, further escalating his effort to target political opponents.