Jan. 6 riot did not embody undercover FBI brokers: Report

No, FBI brokers didn’t begin, or take part in, the January 6 riot, a new report from the Division of Justice’s Workplace of Inspector Common concludes. In the meantime, white supremacist Nick Fuentes is accused of battery for allegedly attacking a girl who confronted him on his racist and misogynist views. And as President-elect Donald Trump once more guarantees pardons, the extremist avenue gang the Proud Boys is celebrating.

It’s the week in extremism from USA TODAY.

FBI was undercover at Jan. 6, however didn’t begin it: Report   

A long-awaited report from the DOJ’s Workplace of Inspector Common detailing the FBI’s function in policing the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol concludes that whereas dozens of informants have been within the crowd, there was no proof of undercover brokers storming the Capitol.

The canard that the Jan. 6 riot was really an FBI setup and was pushed on by undercover brokers has been circulating for the reason that days after the assault. The OIG’s report pours chilly water on this conspiracy concept.

• “We discovered no proof within the supplies we reviewed or the testimony we obtained exhibiting or suggesting that the FBI had undercover staff within the numerous protest crowds, or on the Capitol, on January 6,” the report states.
• As USA TODAY reported, the findings contradict ideas that the assault was government-directed. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., claimed at a 2023 Home Committee on Homeland Safety listening to that there have been “ghost buses” that have been “crammed with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters, deployed onto our Capitol on January sixth.”
• The report notes that three FBI informants have been assigned to the capital that day to regulate home terrorism suspects they have been monitoring. An extra 23 informants attended the riot on their very own, in accordance with the report. 
• The report additionally notes a big intelligence failing by the FBI within the runup to Jan. 6: “Particularly, the FBI didn’t canvass its area places of work prematurely of January 6, 2021, to establish any intelligence, together with CHS reporting, about potential threats to the January 6 Electoral Certification.”
• Within the days main as much as the riot, a whole bunch of individuals, together with well-known home extremists and the leaders of extremist teams, made public posts threatening dysfunction on Jan. 6. The riot was not a shock to most consultants in home violent extremism.

White Supremacist Nick Fuentes accused of battery

White supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes is dealing with battery expenses after allegedly attacking and pepper-spraying a girl who confronted him on his doorstep. 

• The Chicago Tribune reported on the incident, which occurred in November, this week. In response to courtroom paperwork, the Tribune reported, a 57-year-old lady went to Fuentes’ house in Berwyn, IL, the place she made a video of herself and confronted him.
• The confrontation got here shortly after Fuentes posted the misogynistic slogan “Your physique, my selection” on X.
• “She alleged that Fuentes opened the door earlier than she might ring the bell, pepper-sprayed her, screamed an expletive and took her cellphone,” the Related Press reported.
• Fuentes is due in courtroom later this month.

Proud Boys rejoice as Trump guarantees pardons

America’s far-right extremists are anxiously ready to see how extensively Trump wields his pardon energy when he takes workplace later this month. As USA TODAY reported final month, widespread pardons of Jan. 6 insurrectionists would possible give the flailing far-right motion a big increase.  

The Anti-Defamation League notes in its newsletter this week that Telegram accounts linked to the Proud Boys celebrated after Trump told NBC News on Monday he would start issuing pardons on his first day in workplace.

• The ADL notes: “One put up in a chat devoted to a Proud Boys rapper (we even have questions) learn, “OUR FAMILY IS COMING HOME PRAISE GOD THANK YOU TRUMP!!!!”
• Proud Boys accounts on Telegram, the place the group is most publicly energetic, have lengthy been calling for pardons for members of their group who have been charged with committing crimes on Jan. 6.
•  At the very least 54 Proud Boys have been charged in connection to the riot, according to an analysis by the Nationwide Consortium for the Examine of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism on the College of Maryland.

Statistic of the week: One much less

There’s one less white supremacist working at JP Morgan Chase after the Texas Observer revealed {that a} man working for the corporate was additionally working some of the influential neo-Nazi accounts on X.

“This individual is now not on the agency. We don’t tolerate hate in any kind and take incidents akin to this very severely,” a spokesperson for the corporate informed the observer.