By A long-suppressed FBI after-action review of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot has surfaced, revealing deep frustration within the Bureau and raising new questions about the scale of its presence that day. The internal report, uncovered by Director Kash Patel and handed to congressional investigators, shows that 274 undercover agents were dispatched into the chaos—far more than previously acknowledged—and captures sharp complaints from staff about political bias, prosecutorial overreach, and basic safety failures.
Agents from the Washington Field Office said they were thrust into a volatile crowd without helmets, face shields, or clear identification, according to Just The News. “If you are going to deploy us to a riot situation, then give us the proper damn safety equipment,” one wrote. Others faulted leadership for ordering them to “stand the line” alongside local police despite lacking riot-control training. One agent concluded flatly: “Our response to the Capitol Riot reeks of political bias.”
Jan. 6 released footage.
Protester fist bumps Capitol police officer after being uncuffed away from public.
“Insurrection” 🙄 pic.twitter.com/Q15eEGOHaf— ⚜ • 𝕸𝖎𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖑 • ⚜ (@BasedSolutions1) November 17, 2023
Much of the feedback questioned whether the FBI had lost its impartiality. “The FBI should make clear… that, despite its obvious political bias, it ultimately still takes its mission and priorities seriously,” one submission read, urging the Bureau to “equally and aggressively investigate criminal activity regardless of the offenders’ perceived race, political affiliations, or motivations.” Another suggested the agency ought to identify “viable exit options” for personnel unwilling to serve an organization “motivated by political bias.”
Agents also drew sharp comparisons to the Bureau’s muted posture during the riots of 2020, wrote Just The News. “What is even more unacceptable was the hypocrisy… while we as agents watched cities burn,” one wrote, noting that the summer unrest “received nothing like the Capitol Riots response.”
Criticism also extended to the Department of Justice. An agent complained that “the U.S. Attorney’s office is dictating what it is that gets investigated,” calling it “a dangerous precedent” and decrying search warrants executed “on someone’s life for a misdemeanor.” Others blasted the Washington Field Office as “hopelessly broken,” more focused on mask mandates and diversity targets than catching criminals.
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who had resisted congressional demands to disclose agent numbers, dismissed claims of bias in 2023 testimony. “The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me,” he said. On a podcast that year, he argued that those shouting loudest about politicization were “themselves the most political.” But the newly surfaced report shows rank-and-file voices repeatedly warning that leadership had “allowed [the FBI] to be used as pawns in a political war.”
Throughout Wray’s tenure, the FBI routinely showed up to intimidate those who stood against liberals, especially on cultural issues. For example, in May 2023, the FBI showed up at the childhood home of Elise Ketch, an anti-abortion activist who is part of a group of progressives who believe that abortion kills a human life. Their arrival came just months after a SWAT team had been used to arrest another pro-life activist who had been willing to turn himself in and was later acquitted by a jury.
The FBI also arrived on the doorstep of a whistleblower who was being targeted by the Biden Department of Justice after blowing the whistle on illegal sex changes being performed on minors at the Texas Children’s Hospital.
In 2022, a whistleblower stepped forward from inside the FBI, this time a decorated SWAT agent who claimed the Bureau is bending the Constitution to fit politics. Steve Friend, a 12-year veteran based in Daytona Beach, refused to take part in what he described as the FBI’s harassment of conservatives tied to January 6. For his protest, he was stripped of his gun and badge, escorted from the office, and told he had lost his security clearance for “questionable judgment.” Friend insisted his objection was not partisan — he did not support Donald Trump in 2020 — but a matter of conscience, telling his superiors: “I have an oath to uphold the Constitution.”
The case ignited broader criticism that FBI leadership is inflating the domestic-terrorism threat by manipulating case files, farming out January 6 investigations nationwide, and opening probes based on anonymous tips or social media surveillance. Friend claimed agents were ordered to treat peaceful Trump rally-goers as if they were part of a violent plot, and that the Bureau is even retroactively redrawing restricted zones to widen prosecutions.
The revelations have drawn the attention of House Republicans. Judiciary Committee spokesman Russell Dye said the disclosures stemmed from “our oversight, Chairman Loudermilk’s leadership and Director Patel’s leadership.” Loudermilk himself called the report “more damning than anyone could have imagined,” asking why Congress had only now learned of the hundreds of FBI assets at the Capitol and whether courts, defendants, or prosecutors were ever informed.
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