Gaetz asks about role of ‘federal undercover agents’ in Capitol riot

Rep. Matt Gaetz is questioning the role “federal undercover agents or confidential informants” played in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill siege.

On Tuesday, Gaetz wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, asking three questions regarding the “extent … [to which] the three primary militia groups … [were] infiltrated by agencies of the federal government,” “how many federal undercover agents or confidential informants were present at the Capitol or in the Capitol during the ‘siege,'” and “how many [of the unindicted Jan. 6 co-conspirators] worked as a confidential informant or as an undercover operative for the federal government.”

“I expect an answer from your office by August 1, 2021,” he said.

TUCKER CARLSON SUGGESTS UNDERCOVER FBI AGENTS MAY HAVE ORCHESTRATED CAPITOL RIOT

Gaetz’s letter follows a segment on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight lobbing similar charges at the FBI. Host Tucker Carlson implied undercover agents may have instigated the Jan. 6 siege, saying the tactic has been used before, specifically in the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last October.

“In the FBI’s telling of that plot, a whole team of insurrectionists was going to drive a van up to Gretchen Whitmer’s vacation house and throw her in the back and drive away. … It turns out one of the five people in the planned ‘Gretchen Whitmer kidnap van’ was an FBI agent in the van. Another was an FBI informant, and the feds admitted in these documents that an informant or undercover agent was ‘usually present’ in this group’s meetings,” he said, adding the alleged kidnapper who suggested using a bomb to blow up a bridge as part of the plot “was an undercover FBI agent.”

A criminal complaint the Department of Justice filed on Oct. 6 of last year with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan showed that while a confidential human source, or informant, shared a picture in the kidnappers’ group chat of a map, it was Ty Garbin, an airline mechanic who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection to the case, who suggested blowing up the bridge.

Carlson added that the FBI’s strategy of “encouraging people and assisting people to participate and plot, largely scripted by the FBI itself,” also appeared in an Islamic terror attack in Garland, Texas, where “it turns out that an FBI employee played an active role in that shooting.” The Fox News host then played a clip from CNN where an official told Anderson Cooper that an undercover FBI agent “had been texting with [suspect Elton] Simpson less than three weeks before the attack … which, to me, was an encouragement to Simpson.”

“So, if you’re wondering why they keep comparing Jan. 6 to 9/11, there’s your answer: They’re using the same tactics,” Carlson said.

While many on the Right have theorized the Jan. 6 siege of Capitol Hill was instigated by outside infiltrators, Wray has said there is no evidence that fake Trump supporters or antifa were responsible for the attack.

“Do you have any evidence that the capital attack was organized by, quote, ‘fake Trump protesters?'” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin asked Wray during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 2.

“We have not seen evidence of that,” Wray responded.

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Wray has also said the Jan. 6 riot cannot compare to the “horror” of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, despite some on the Left employing such comparisons.

A representative for Gaetz did not immediately reply to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment. The FBI confirmed receipt of the letter but offered no further comment.