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FBI informants in the Jan. 6 crowd

Claims that federal informants were in the Jan. 6 crowd were dismissed in 2021 as unfounded. The New York Times later reported a Proud Boys informant was there, and on Dec. 12, 2024 the DOJ Inspector General confirmed that 26 FBI confidential sources were in Washington that day. The IG found no evidence the FBI planted undercover employees or encouraged the attack.

Dec 12, 2024 ·

What the record shows

In June 2021 Revolver News and Tucker Carlson suggested that unindicted co-conspirators in Jan. 6 charging papers were federal operatives. FactCheck.org (June 18, 2021) called the theory unfounded, noting that government agents and informers cannot legally be co-conspirators. On Sept. 25, 2021, the New York Times reported that a Proud Boys informant texted his FBI handler during the march, that he went to DC on his own initiative, and that another informant may have been tied to a second chapter. The Dec. 12, 2024 DOJ IG report found 26 FBI confidential human sources in DC in connection with the events. Three had been tasked by field offices to report on domestic terrorism subjects, four entered the Capitol, and none were authorized to enter the Capitol or a restricted area or to encourage illegal activity. The IG also found no evidence the FBI had undercover employees in the crowds, and faulted the FBI for not canvassing its field offices for threat intelligence beforehand. Ray Epps, the focus of many "fed" claims, pleaded guilty in Sept. 2023 to disorderly conduct in a restricted area and was sentenced in January 2024 to one year of probation. A Jan. 6 committee staffer told 60 Minutes there was "zero evidence" he was a federal agent, and prosecutors said he had never been a government agent. His defamation suit against Fox News was dismissed in Nov. 2024 and, after he refiled, dismissed again in May 2026 because he had not shown Fox knew its statements were false.

What the record doesn’t support

The record confirms that informants were present, which early fact-checks did not anticipate. It does not support the claim that the FBI organized, instigated or staged the attack: the IG found none of the sources was authorized to encourage illegal acts, 23 of the 26 came on their own, and no undercover FBI employees were identified. The dismissal of Epps's suit turned on Fox's state of mind (actual malice), not on any finding that he was an informant.

Sources

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