FBI report warned of 'war' at Capitol, contradicting claims there was no indication of violence
Source: Washington Post
A day before rioters stormed Congress, an FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit internal warning that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and “war,” according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post that contradicts a senior official’s declaration the bureau had no intelligence indicating anyone at last week’s pro-Trump protest planned to do harm.
A situational information report approved for release the day before the U.S. Capitol riot painted a dire portrait of dangerous plans, including individuals sharing a map of the complex’s tunnels, and possible rally points for would-be conspirators to meet up in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and South Carolina and head in groups to Washington.
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The warning is the starkest evidence yet of the sizable intelligence failure that preceded the mayhem, which claimed the lives of five people, although one law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid disciplinary action, said the failure was not one of intelligence but of acting on the intelligence.
An FBI official familiar with the document said that within 45 minutes of learning about the alarming online conversation, the Norfolk FBI office wrote the report and shared it with others within the bureau. It was not immediately clear how many law enforcement agencies outside the FBI were told, but the information was briefed to FBI officials at the bureau’s Washington field office the day before the attack, this official said.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fbi-report-warned-of-war-at-capitol-contradicting-claims-there-was-no-indication-of-looming-violence/ar-BB1cH6gM?li=BBnb7Kz
It is pretty clear that the reason why there was not adequate security is not because law enforcement lacked information about the possible armed insurrection, but because Trump and Congressional Republicans saw the rioters as their political base and were supportive of the rioters objectives, which was to overturn the results of the election.
Indeed, the fact that you have once again have Republican members of Congress trying to minimize the insurrection or falsely blame fictional groups like antifa, shows that they are continuing to support the insurrectionists.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/white-house-counsel-s-office-warned-trump-not-fire-chris-n1250956
White House counsel's office warned Trump not to fire Chris Wray
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has come so close to firing FBI Director Christopher Wray in recent months that the White House counsel’s office has warned him not to do so because it could put him in potential legal jeopardy, according to a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the discussion and a U.S. official familiar with the discussion.
White House lawyers “strongly” advised Trump against firing another FBI director out of concern that doing so would risk creating the perception that a “loyalty test” was being imposed on a position that traditionally has maintained independence from the White House, according to the senior administration official.
The lawyers, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, specifically said that firing Wray could spark legal issues similar to those raised after Trump ousted James Comey as FBI director in 2017 in the midst of the Russia investigation, the officials said.
Their concern was that firing Wray could be seen as retaliation because the president has publicly pressured him to take specific actions on certain investigations — such as announcing a probe into President-elect Joe Biden’s son — and then expressed frustration that Wray has not followed his suggestions.
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