Established Fact
A bombshell December 2024 report by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General confirmed that the FBI failed to take the “basic step” of canvassing its 56 field offices for pre-existing intelligence before January 6, 2021 — a failure FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate himself admitted was “a basic step that was missed.” A bipartisan Senate investigation released in June 2023 found that the FBI and DHS had downplayed or ignored “a massive amount of intelligence information” in the weeks leading up to January 6, including explicit online threats to “literally kill people” and storm the Capitol — yet failed to elevate or share this intelligence with frontline law enforcement partners.
Citations
DOJ Office of Inspector General, “A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Handling of Its Confidential Human Sources and Intelligence Collection Efforts in the Lead Up to the January 6, 2021 Electoral Certification” (December 2024), https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/25-011.pdf
U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Chairman Gary Peters (D-MI), “Peters Report Finds Significant Intelligence Failures by FBI and DHS in Lead-Up to January 6th Capitol Attack” (June 26, 2023), https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/dems/peters-report-finds-significant-intelligence-failures-by-fbi-and-dhs-in-lead-up-to-january-6th-capitol-attack