Intelligence officials 'blamed each other' and 'failed to sound the alarm' about January 6th: Senate report

27 June 2023

Democrats on the United States Senate Homeland Security Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday released a 105-page report — Planned in Plain Sight, A Review of the Intelligence Failures in Advance of 6 January 2021 — outlining intelligence lapses prior to the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

National Public Radio highlighted that federal agencies failed to "accurately assess the severity of the threat identified" and also neglected to cooperate with law enforcement ahead of the deadly insurgency incited by then-President Donald Trump, in spite of the flurry of online chatter and warnings that preceded the assault.

Senator Gary Peters (D-Michigan), the Committee chair, said that "despite the high volume of tips and online traffic about the potential for violence — some of which the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Intelligence and Analysis were aware of as early as December 2020 — these agencies failed to sound the alarm and share critical intelligence information that could have helped law enforcement better prepare for the events of January 6th."

The Senate's investigation found that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security "failed to fully and accurately assess the severity of the threat identified by that intelligence, and formally disseminate guidance to their law enforcement partners with sufficient urgency and alarm to enable those partners to prepare for the violence that ultimately occurred."

According to the Senate, the FBI "continued to downplay the overall threat, repeatedly noting that FBI 'identified no credible or verified threat.'"

Officials who were responsible for Capitol security, The Guardian explained, "blamed each other for failing to prevent the attack that ensued, which left more than 140 police officers injured and led to several deaths."

In its conclusion, the report strongly recommended "a re-evaluation of the federal government's domestic intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination processes."

The Senate's full report is available at this link. NPR's analysis continues here.The Guardian's is here.

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