Director defends FBI actions ahead of Jan 6 Capitol riot
WASHINGTON: The FBI director defended his bureau’s handling of intelligence ahead of the Jan 6 US Capitol riot, while telling lawmakers of an alarming recent spike in domestic terrorism cases.
Christopher Wray faced a grilling from members of Congress in his first testimony since the deadly insurrection by supporters of then-president Donald Trump, particularly over whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation underestimated the danger.
As he sought to show the bureau was taking the threat seriously, he said it has dramatically increased its probes of domestic extremist groups including those advocating white supremacy, and that his agents were now pursuing 2,000 extremism cases – double the number since he became FBI director in 2017.
Wray stood by his agency’s handling of raw intelligence gathered on the eve of the Capitol unrest, after law enforcement personnel testified to Congress last month that they were not sufficiently briefed by the intelligence community of the Jan 6 threat.
“The way in which it was handled at least as I understand it strikes me as consistent with our normal process,” Wray told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Wray was referring to a report of raw, unverified intelligence compiled by the FBI’s Norfolk, Virginia field office on Jan 5 and emailed to US Capitol Police and other security offices.
The intelligence report cited social media chatter warning that Trump supporters were planning to storm the Capitol, with extremists “ready for war.” Wray said police were also verbally briefed about the threat, and it was posted on a portal made available to law enforcement personnel in the national capital region and around the country.
He said the email went to multiple US Capitol Police task force officers.
When asked why the report did not flow up to police leadership ahead of the riot, Wray said “I don’t have a good answer for that” and acknowledged that he himself did not see the report until days after Jan 6.