Revisiting J6: how many FBI agents were there, and why and when?
Recently the news came out that 274 plainclothes FBI agents were at the J6 protests, and that some of them later complained they’d been used as political pawns. Some of the coverage on the right implied that they were embedded from the start – but that’s not what the report actually said. To clear that up, here’s a good summary:
The [FBI] document has proven a bombshell to lawmakers, revealing for the first time that the FBI had a total of 274 agents deployed to the Capitol in plainclothes and with guns after the violence started but with no clear safety gear of way to be recognized by other law enforcement agencies working in the chaos of the riot.
So they were sent while the brouhaha was already underway. But they were endangered by not being in uniform, and the situation became even more chaotic. Did they even have instructions on what they were supposed to do there?
More:
Wray, Patel’s predecessor, steadfastly refused to tell Congress how many if any agents went to the Capitol that day. And a prior DOJ Inspector General Report did not divulge the number, referring only to a SWAT team the bureau sent into the Capitol and having more than two dozen informants in the crowd.
The existence of mass FBI agents at the Capitol on Jan. 6 could also be a problem in many of the cases that were subsequently brought in court. If agents were witnesses at the Capitol and did not disclose it in the subsequent affidavits during prosecutions it could create grounds for defendants to appeal.
The document also reveals for the first time that there were widespread concerns for years inside the bureau – sentiments that boiled over after the FBI began sending SWAT teams to arrest Jan. 6 participants on misdemeanor charges – that the FBI had become biased in favor of liberals and against conservatives.
Over the years, I’ve written a great many posts about J6. But one of the things that struck me from the beginning and all along is how many unanswered questions there are – questions to which I strongly believe the authorities actually know the answers. You can see some of my earlier and later questions in the following posts: this written the day after, this written about five months after, this from September of 2021, and this from March of 2023.
Will we ever know the answers? I think not.
NOTE: About a week ago, before this report came out, I was thinking about J6 and one question I’ve wondered about for a long long time. I even wrote a short draft for a post, and this seems as good a time as any to ask the question: who were the people convicted for scaling the Capitol wall, or whose convictions mentioned that they had scaled the wall? After all, those men – I believe they were all men – were among the most visible and alarming participants that day. I figured they’d probably be fairly easy to spotlight, identify, and charge with something. But oddly enough, so far I’ve only found one person whose conviction mentions that he scaled the wall. The description is in this article datelined October 21, 2022, and it says [emphasis mine]:
On Jan. 6, 2021, [Matthew Bledsoe, 38] attended a rally near the Ellipse. Bledsoe then headed to the Capitol, and illegally entered the Capitol grounds shortly after 2:13 p.m. He then moved to the Capitol Building itself. He scaled a wall at the Upper Northwest Terrace and entered through a fire door at the Senate Wing. Among other things, he yelled, “In the Capitol. This is our house. We pay for this s—. Where’s those pieces of s—at?” He climbed a statue and was outside the corridor to the House Chamber and hallways near the Speaker’s Lobby. He left the building about 2:47 p.m., after approximately 22 minutes inside.
Within two hours, however, Bledsoe returned, lingering outside the East Rotunda Doors as law enforcement officers worked to secure the building and grounds.
He got a sentence of four years in prison. It appears those four years were for trespassing, climbing a statue, and yelling a few curses. No one even seems to have alleged that he was violent towards anyone. I’ve read another article about Bledsoe, which mentions that prosecutors asked for a sentence of nearly six years.
But we’re already quite familiar with the overreach of the prosecutors and the judges who applied that sort of penalty for a non-violent demonstrator. My question remains: who were the other people scaling the wall? Maybe they were all demonstrators much like Bledsoe. But I’d like to know. I realize there are many more important things about J6 that we still don’t know. But that particular one bugs me. If you can find more information on the people who climbed the wall, please put in in the comments.
To me even worse are many leaders in the J6 event who were never looked for.
The ” bomber,”
The hang man sst up
Scaffold Commander and a few with him directing the crowd
Probably many more I forgot this minute.
But very possibly these are some of those Eff Bee Eye as no one e wanted to know who they were
They were Feds from other agencies, or local “law enforcement”.
If the FBI agents were so upset, why didn’t they quit? or Whistleblower? Keep their pensions maybe
God, I am getting so very cynical.
OK – 274 FBI agents were at J6
How many in the intervening 4 1/2 years have said anything?
How many have resigned in disgust?
How many have ratted out their Leftist Superiors.
How many have become whistleblowers?
How many have been named and/or fired by Patel?
If you trust the FBI you are insane, even under Patel and Bongino, I’m sorry to say.
My guess is that in recruiting FBI agents since Obama in 2008, the overwhelming majority of these agents are Leftists. If that is the case, how do you get the FBI to investigate anything on The Left.
Trump wants to go after Antifa and their $$ donors like George and Alex Soros, Tides and Arabella.
They will get tipped off my guess is. Hope I am wrong.
January 6 was a setup by the Dems and the Deep State. Trump walked right into it.
My liberal acquaintances continue to insist J6 was a terribleawful plot against the US by a bunch of right-wing fascists. When asked if somebody who went into the capitol to look around and maybe pray should be locked up for four years, the answer is a resounding YES~
But you can hear the desperation of doubt in their voices. They know better but can’t let on.
So…. these 276 agents were sent to the scene in response to the protest? So we still don’t know the extent of the forces deployed in advance of the protest, seeded into the crowd to gather intelligence, take pictures, document actions, maybe create a few as well. I wonder when this part of the reporting gets issued….
Does anybody really think that Christopher Wray’s FBI, the one that believed in spying on parents that protest transgender assaults at school board meetings, wouldn’t have been thinking up ways to gather evidence at the Jan 6th rally?
Too many unresolved questions, as noted above, for me to start believing in drip-fed news stories.
“January 6 was a setup by the Dems and the Deep State. Trump walked right into it”
It was a setup from the first. Orchestrated by the Dems, Speaker Pelosi in particular. Both Trump and the chief of the Capital Police requested DCNG troops repeatedly, starting 1/5. Their requests were denied by both the DC mayor and the Pentagon (worried about “optics”). There very much appears to have been professional agitators involved, very likely connected with the FBI. Just like AntiFA with BLM, who would break windows, invite Blacks into businesses, to loot and burn, then sneak off to do it again elsewhere. I think that it was Promise Keepers, where maybe 3/4 of the members were FBI.
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“So…. these 276 agents were sent to the scene in response to the protest? So we still don’t know the extent of the forces deployed in advance of the protest, seeded into the crowd to gather intelligence, take pictures, document actions, maybe create a few as well. I wonder when this part of the reporting gets issued…”
The FBI agents were there plain clothed. That very likely means that they were there in advance. Otherwise they would have showed up in their work clothes, which usually means coats and ties, etc, instead of MAGA hats and T shirts. .
It’s taken a few years but, finally, the 15 or more FBI agents pictured kneeling–one presumes in fealty to George Floyd and to Black Lives Matter, during the BLM riots–have all been fired.*
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/breaking-kash-patel-fbi-brass-fire-more-than/
P.S. There is so much wrong with the FBI that it’s hard to know where to start.
Those 276 agents were not sent there to observe. They were sent to instigate the “Insurrection”.
How many times did Comey and Wray lie to congress about the number of agents there and what they were doing.
@ Shirehome & John Galt > “If the FBI agents were so upset, why didn’t they quit? or Whistleblower?”
In a perfect world, or in a movie,* they would have.
Then, after 2 hours of tense suspense and probably some car chases through Washington, they would have been celebrated and appointed leader of the FBI to clear out all the political partisans and restore the reputation of the Bureau.
And get the girl (or guy, in another movie) who supported them through all the turmoil.
Roll credits.
However, they DID reveal how they felt, in a report that SHOULD have been given to the Congressional committee charged with oversight and was not.
Feebs may be many things, but most of them are not stupid.
Why go public in the Biden Inc tenure, when at least half the country won’t believed them, and they would be unable to bring the classified information with them (because they won’t get the “Democrats get out of jail free card” like Comey (used to have) )just to confirm what the other half of the country already “knows” to be true.
Patel may have been given a little help in “finding” that suppressed report, although I suspect he already knew it existed (don’t remember all the details of the last four years, there have been too many stories).
We have the report now, and an administration willing to act on the contents.
EDIT:
h/t Snow on Pine
That post also confirms what I said above, and is probably what I sorta kinda remembered.
* https://accordingtohoyt.com/2025/09/26/its-all-in-the-movies/
Hats off to all LEOs. They have damn hard jobs to do.
They are solid middle-class or better folks who have their eye on their next step in the hierarchy and are playing for a pension.
Why not?
I don’t expect them to be patriots or citizens of conscience if push comes to shove between what they’ve worked so hard for and the current political winds.
Sure they took an oath. I’d prefer if they stood by it. But people are people.
Maybe those FBI agents would have been OK if they had refused to take a knee for George Floyd. Maybe not. If I was 5-10 years into a career, I might have found a way to rationalize it myself.
Not that I have much sympathy for those who got fired for doing so.
@ huxley – If there was pressure from their boss to take a knee, then I might have some sympathy, although it is in no way as serious as taking a vaccine to keep your job..
If it was voluntary, but just pandering to their bosses or “expressing their true self” then no.
The selection of actual Trump supporters and the total ignored likes of the instigators pretty much proves it was a total set up.
Ray Epps was in contact with many though certainly not a Eff Bee Eye agent, but the Scaffold Commander very could have been. He and a companion directed the crowd but was never even tried to be identified.
Could one make the case that any agent who remained with, or applied for admission to, the agency, after apparently zero agents or higher ups suffered the slightest justice following he Waco massacre is, himself, not trustworthy?
I don’t know Neo ask the FBI, there were plenty there, one of them must have seen something!
I notice that, in the famous image, some of these agents taking a knee are smiling, so probably not their bosses forcing them to, “get out there and take a knee.”
P.S. Judging by their actions over the last couple of decades, the FBI is so corrupt that I wouldn’t know where to start to try to “fix” it.
Some have proposed just closing up the current shop, and rebuilding from the ground up.
However, what would you do during the years it would take to rebuild?
If you needed FBI type services, “who you gonna call.”
If they were doing crowd control, why didn’t anybody see them controlling the crowd ?
they fired tear gas at the protesters to rile them up, inside the Capitol there was a long line of people walking in between the ropes, then right outside a door to a foyer a clutch of Capitol Police, decided to take a break, thats when Ashley Babbitt got shot, by Michael Byrd, in the tunnels, Rosalyn Boyland was clubbed to death by a Capitol Policeman, (it took years for the video to emerge) of course there was the two protesters who were near Officer Sicknick, but they never attacked him, the guy with the handmaid gallows, was never identified, nor was their investigation into the pipe bomber, which was the pretext for the sham show, (the data was corrupted, what a coincidence) then there is the Garbage Bound volume that legitimated the fraud
It looks like Jan 6th was a setup from the getgo, with Pilosi reportedly refusing to order in the 10,000 troops reports say President Trump offered.
Then, if the FBI is now admitting that it had 274 unidentified Agents in the crowd—no badges on lanyards, no “Raid Jackets” to identify them, and supposedly for the BS purpose of “crowd control” —just how many other Agents—from, say, the CIA (I know they’re not supposed to operate domestically, but everyone was apparently playing fast and loose with the rules back then), or Military Intelligence, from hostile Leftist organizations, or even hostile foreign governments—could possibly have been in the crowd that day, to stir things up, and to make sure that there was going to be a major Incident?
Bottom line, just what percentage of the crowd that day were actually innocent, patriotic civilians—70%, 50%, 30%, 20%?
Come on, people. Just about everyone agrees that J6 was an insurrection against our Demoncracy (sic), initiated by Trump, who personally murdered three of the fifteen cops who died that day.
Now kneel!
Breaking news: numbers now in!
https://babylonbee.com/news/new-report-indicates-only-3-people-in-jan-6-crowd-were-not-fbi-agents
WHO ELSE knew?
Did Pelosi’s fake House Commitee on J6 know it? And bury notice of this FIB report when they — again in violation of House Preservation Rules — dispatched their documents from all remaining files and recordings?
PS snoe on pne — don’t forget Yolanda, the Cap Hill liason to Pelosi who hid dissent abiut so few officers set up, and paid off by Team Pelosi.
Since the FBI’s skill set has little or nothing to do with order-maintenance functions, what were they doing there?
Skip mentions the scaffold setup.
I’ve seen a photo of 4 guys, with sun glasses on, who were illegally setting up the mini gallows at about 6 am. Was told there is a security video tape of them, plus even some of their van.
Who are those people? I believe they were FBI/ IC. Sent before the riots, with orders that are not written down anywhere.
Likely not among the Wink & Nod “just in case of violence” 274 acknowledged collaborators.
All of whom who should be fired, along with intense under oath questioning about their orders and their actions & their reports of their actions. Inciting violence is a crime. The J6 committee covered up the illegal Fed incitement. And, in violation of record retention rules, destroyed the evidence of the coverup.
There’s so many criminal Dem govt bureaucrats, and Intel Comm agents, all of whom should be fired. Maybe Too Many to Prosecute Them All, but not too many to fire. And their bosses & their bosses. Wray has already been replaced, he should have been fired earlier.
Let’s also note what that the idea was to Stop The Steal. It was a rigged, stolen election.
In a free & fair election, the govt does not censor the negative truth about a candidate, nor pressure others to censure the truth.
In 2020, the truth about H Biden’s laptop, and many illegal money details involving Biden, were censored. Not a fair election, rigged, stolen.
Grok says some 53-120k in overall attendance, notes 4 FBI agents were unauthorized to enter the capital, & 13 more were in unauthorized attendance in the crowd.
I’m so glad Trump won in 2024. We’re unlikely to ever get all the important questions answered, tho we’re slowly, finally getting more truth. But grok repeats the Dem line that no agents incited violence.
@ Art Deco > the agents themselves questioned why they were being sent, as they did not have that kind of training and also were not provided with any gear suitable for the job.
@ Tom Grey > “Likely not among the Wink & Nod “just in case of violence” 274 acknowledged collaborators.”
My thought as well. If Wray was confronted with a whistleblower, he could claim something like “we only or mostly had those riot control guys; just doing our part to keep the peace; yada yada yada.”
Maybe looking for the least untruthful answer, in the memorable words of James Clapper.
The bureaus should have been shut down right then.
Even the Left knew that this was wrong.
https://newrepublic.com/article/114276/obama-surveillance-comments-dishonesty-isnt-only-problem
“These revelations led news outlets like the Huffington Post and others to ask: “Did Obama lie on national television?” And it’s certainly true that the evasive language the administration uses to describe what it’s doing is increasingly corrosive. The administration feels it can’t reveal the details about its surveillance program, so it uses funny language and then gets caught “lying,” creating an atmosphere of dishonesty and distrust. Obama’s Clintonian equivocations have made this the administration of what James Clapper called the “least untruthful answer,” and that seems troubling.”
I often hear that Ashley Babbitt was the only one killed on J6, but people don’t know about Rosalyn Boyland.
There were others who died that day which I haven’t heard much about.
Given the lack of honesty out of the FBI, and the fact there is no supporting evidence for the assertion that they were only deployed after the violence started, I’m inclined to believe that they were in fact there the entire time.
If they were deployed in response to the violence there should be all manner of corroborating evidence of the call up of these agents being emails, sms messages, phone logs etc. Until that is produced I’m going to say the FBI is covering up their involvement still.