Dems & Media Can't Allow MAGA to Rewrite the History of J6

They are using the new DOJ report to mischaracterize what happened.

MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump are seeking to rewrite the history of what we saw with our own eyes on J6, and the evidence that was presented in courtrooms in hundreds of criminal cases. This is a project they have been at virtually since the day it happened, but now they are weaponizing DOJ’s final report on the insurrection while legacy media and Democrats largely ignore them.

Again.

DOJ’s Inspector General report was released last week. The Biden Administration, AG Merrick Garland, and FBI Director Chris Wray all realized that this report auditing the response and involvement of federal and other law enforcement agencies had to be released before the incoming Trump Administration took office, since they would seek to either kill the report or seriously alter it to omit key facts and truths.

Republican conspiracy theorists and propagandists have seized upon one small section of the report that addresses their long-standing contention, with no evidence to back it up, that the FBI inserted their agents into the crowd that day specifically to incite a riot in order to thwart the plans of representatives and Senators to challenge the results of the election on the floor during the joint session of Congress.

The IG reported stated a few simple relevant facts:

1. There were NO FBI Agents in the crowd that day.

2. There were 26 people who had served or were serving in some capacity as FBI informants in matters unrelated to J6 who were present in DC at a variety of events including the Trump rally, but none of them were instructed by the FBI to be there or do anything.

3. Some of these informants committed crimes that day.

4. The FBI had 4 informants in the crowd that later reported information to them, but only one was there specifically to monitor the situation while the others were there on their own initiative.

5. All 4 were specifically instructed not to go inside the police perimeter or the Capitol building but 3 of them did anyway.

6. None of those 4 actively participated in any violence and each was told specifically not to do anything or get involved in any way.

MAGA Republicans were quick to pounce on this as “proof” that their conspiracy theory was right all along - that the FBI instigated the insurrection to frame Trump supporters. They cited the testimony of FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was repeatedly asked at congressional hearings whether the FBI was involved in instigating J6. But Wray never lied - he testified that no FBI Agents were in the crowd. When asked about informants, he testified that it has been FBI policy never to comment on the use of non-testifying confidential informants in any pending matter. There was nothing that Wray ever testified to that was proven to be false in the IG report.

Republicans seeking to rewrite the history of J6 are conflating the use of informants with the use of agents. An agent is a sworn law enforcement officer who has a badge and works full-time for the FBI as their career. Informants typically either have pending charges that they are trying to mitigate or are being paid by the FBI based on the value of information they provide. They are private citizens who often operate as freelancers (essentially independent contractors) who are rarely under the direct daily supervision of an agent. They typically contact an agent when they have something to report that they have seen or heard, which sometimes initiates further investigation.

It has been disheartening to watch legacy media and Democrats briefly cover or address the initial IG report, then move on as Republicans distort it and lie about it to reset the narrative. People like Ron Johnson in Senate hearings and Clay Higgins in the House have suggested that the FBI brought in hundreds of agents specifically to insert them into the crowd to incite a riot. Higgins claimed that 200 FBI agents were brought into DC in secret “ghost buses” to hide the operation from the public. There are dozens of other members of Congress who have advanced this narrative.

Then you have people like Stephen A. Smith, who just signed a new $100+ million contract with ESPN. Leading up to the signing of the deal and afterwards, Smith has gotten quite a bit more provocative in his show commentary with political statements. He chimed in on this report, despite clearly not understanding all the issues. It also appears he may have relied on social media characterizations of the report when he said he was “tired of Democrats lying” to the public about things like this.

Smith is not a Democrat, but he is a registered independent who says he votes mostly for Democratic candidates. He is also a major, influential legacy media host for a huge company that reaches exactly the kind of low-information voters who don’t follow politics closely and tend to decide close elections like 2024. These are people who don’t read DOJ IG reports - they get their information from people like Smith, Joe Rogan and others. And the information they are being fed is false.

The problem when people like Smith decide to chime in with an ignorant and/or false take is that these are exactly the moments that MAGA Republicans look for and seize upon. They love rants like his, because it allows them to argue that even a major legacy media figure agrees with their lies and propaganda now. Agrees that they were right all along. The clip of these comments by Smith got over 10 million total views on right-wing social media:

“My big issue is that I'm really, really sick and tired of every time I turn around finding something else that the Democrats have lied about or downplayed or misrepresented along the way.”

First, Democrats didn’t lie. The assertion is that Chris Wray lied. Chris Wray is a Republican appointed by Trump. Second, Wray didn’t lie. He told the truth that no agents were involved and explained that he cannot comment publicly on informants because the FBI never comments on informants for many very good reasons. Third, even if you believe he was deceptive in his responses, there is still zero evidence to suggest that anyone associated with the FBI planned to send people into the crowd to incite a riot, which is the main point of this entire exercise.

Legacy media has a responsibility not only to put out an accurate story about it when a report like this is published, but also to follow up and address disinformation and lies generated by the right-wing media echo system and elected officials. But they consistently drop the ball on this while they move to the next story. Democratic elected officials also have a responsibility to continue to push the truth and take the lies on forcefully.

Since they don’t seem interested much in doing any of those things, we will continue to along with other smaller independent media outlets, a handful of politicians who care enough, some dedicated legacy media reporters, and a few TV commentators like Adam Kinzinger. We continue to tell the truth about what happened, over and over and over again, and we pay attention to each and every lie so we can be vigilant about rebutting right-wing propaganda.

Which is what we are doing right now with this article.

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