More than 250 FBI agents deployed in plainclothes to the United States Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot were left without proper safety equipment, clear instructions, or identifiable markings, a disorganized response that prompted a wave of internal complaints accusing FBI leadership of politicization and double standards, according to a newly released after-action report.
The document, reviewed by the House Judiciary Committee and obtained by Just the News on Thursday, includes more than 50 pages of feedback from FBI personnel, many assigned to the Washington Field Office, who described their deployment that day as chaotic and politically compromised. Several agents said they felt the bureau had become “infected” by partisan ideology and criticized FBI leaders for treating the Jan. 6 rioters differently than protesters from the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and riots.
“We have been used as pawns in a political war, and FBI leadership fell into the trap and has allowed it to happen,” one employee wrote. “We are supposed to call balls and strikes, regardless of political pressure. Now we can’t even be trusted to be on the field.”
While some public officials, including U.S. Agency for Global Media adviser Kari Lake, suggested on Thursday that the report was evidence that the riot was “staged” to “cover-up a stolen election,” internal records and prior inspector general reports show the 274 personnel were part of a broader law enforcement surge in response to the violence and unrest that erupted at the Capitol that day. President Donald Trump invited his supporters to Washington, D.C., that day to take part in a rally to peacefully protest his election defeat, and he was still giving a speech outside the White House when hundreds of protesters stormed the Capitol.
They staged a riot on January 6 to frame patriotic Americans and cover-up a stolen election.
Justice is coming
pic.twitter.com/6RZzNPevfD
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) September 26, 2025
Several prominent allies of Trump and lawmakers, including Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have suggested without evidence that the riot was part of a plan or orchestration by undercover federal agents, in part due to the sheer number of security failures that ultimately resulted in hundreds of rioters entering the Capitol building.
Still, the report reveals how FBI agents tasked with crisis response were deployed without protective gear, clear chains of command, or even a way to identify themselves to other officers — creating dangerous conditions amid the confusion of the riot.
“If you are going to deploy us to a riot situation, then give us the proper damn safety equipment — helmet, face shield, protective clothing — and training!” one agent wrote. Another criticized the lack of coordination, saying, “We were simply told to go there. No answers. No leadership.”
Agents also criticized the bureau’s prosecution priorities following the riot, which some described as disproportionate and politically motivated, particularly the use of SWAT teams to arrest Jan. 6 defendants on misdemeanor charges.
“The hypocrisy displayed by the FBI and its leadership in their attempt to go after those involved in the Capitol riots, while we as agents watched cities burn across America during the summer of 2020, is unacceptable,” one wrote.
Another agent said the bureau had strayed so far from impartial law enforcement that some agents should be given “viable exit options” if they can no longer support an institution “motivated by political bias.”
The report, which had not been previously released in full, was located and turned over to Congress by FBI Director Kash Patel, who took over earlier this year after Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
Patel’s predecessor, Trump-appointee Christopher Wray, had declined to disclose how many agents were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and a prior Inspector General report acknowledged only that “several hundred” were deployed without elaborating on their roles or concerns. He only acknowledged a SWAT team the bureau sent to the Capitol and having 26 informants, not agents, in the crowd.
In testimony before Congress, Wray previously dismissed allegations that the bureau under his leadership was politically biased. “The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me,” he told lawmakers in 2023. However, one employee complained in the report that the ideology of the bureau led to different levels of treatment of the Jan. 6 rioters compared to the protesters from the summer of 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.
“The FBI should make clear to its personnel and the public that, despite its obvious political bias, it ultimately still takes its mission and priorities seriously,” the employee said. “It should equally and aggressively investigate criminal activity regardless of the offenders’ perceived race, political affiliations, or motivations; and it should equally and aggressively protect all Americans regardless of perceived race, political affiliations, or motivations.”
Front-line agents also said the Washington Field Office had drifted from its law enforcement mission and had become obsessed with cultural issues, including under former FBI Director James Comey, who was replaced by Wray in August 2017. “WFO is a hopelessly broken office that’s more concerned about wearing masks and recruiting preferred racial/sexual groups than catching actual bad guys,” another response stated.
The response from the FBI agents mirrors frustrations over the National Guard’s response to the riot, which only came hours after thousands of supporters of Trump, who lost his reelection bid to incoming President Joe Biden, descended on the U.S. Capitol. Earlier this year, former United States Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund laid blame on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), accusing her of blocking his multiple requests for Guard assistance before and during the riot. In a series of posts in June, he accused Pelosi of shifting to Trump over the delays of the National Guard’s eventual arrival, despite her office maintaining the approval channels via the House Sergeant at Arms.
The report has raised new oversight concerns from Republicans on Capitol Hill, including House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jan. 6 subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), as the current FBI is still ensnared in an investigation to locate the suspect responsible for laying down a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee headquarters on the day of the riot.
“This report is more damning than anyone could have imagined and opens up even more questions,” Loudermilk said, vowing to investigate whether courts were informed about the FBI’s on-the-ground presence, whether agents were later involved in prosecutions, and whether leadership misled Congress about the bureau’s role.
A representative for the House Judiciary Committee did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for access to the after-action report.
PATEL REJECTS FBI POLITICIZATION AFTER COMEY INDICTMENT
The release of the report sheds light on one of the final unknowns about the FBI’s posture during the Jan. 6 attack, such as how the bureau reacted in real time and what it learned afterward. For many agents, the experience appears to have left a lasting scar.
“Our response to the Capitol riot reeks of political bias,” one agent concluded. “I wonder if our biases affected our preparedness.”
