As the Democratic-led Congress probes claims of a grand scheme by Trump supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and overthrow the 2020 election, four current and former law enforcement officials have told Reuters that the FBI has found scant evidence of an organized plot.
The FBI believes at this point in its investigation that the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or Trump prominent supporters, the sources told Reuters.
The sources have been either directly involved in or briefed regularly on the investigations, Reuters said.
“Ninety to 95% of these are one-off cases,” said a former senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. “Then you have 5%, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages.”
The investigators concluded cells of protesters, including followers of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys groups, sought to break in to the Capitol, the sources said. But they found no evidence that the groups had serious plans about what to do if they made it inside.
Prosecutors have filed conspiracy charges against 40 defendants, but prosecutors, Reuters said, “have steered clear of more serious, politically loaded charges that the sources said had been initially discussed by prosecutors, such as seditious conspiracy or racketeering.”
A Democratic congressional source told Reuters that senior lawmakers have been briefed in detail on the results of the FBI’s investigation so far and find them credible.
The chaos on Jan. 6 erupted as the Senate and House of Representatives met to certify the results of the November presidential election.
Democrats and establishment media continue to describe the Jan. 6 event as an “insurrection,” but FBI Director Christopher Wray has challenged that language.
In June, he testified before Congress that the event was nothing like the “horror” of 9/11, explaining “insurrection” has a precise legal meaning.
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