Defense Attorneys Say at Least 20 Federal ‘Assets’ at Capitol on Jan. 6; No Plot by Defendants

According to a court filing by a defense attorney for the Oath Keepers on April 12, at least 20 FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “assets were embedded around the Capitol” on Jan. 6, 2021 (J6).

This key detail is provided in a footnote on Page 6 of the motion, reports The Epoch Times (ET).

The footnote also noted that defense attorneys “combed through a mountain of discovery,” including summaries of interviews conducted by FBI agents.

ET adds:

The disclosure was made in a motion seeking to dismiss seditious conspiracy and obstruction charges against 10 Oath Keepers defendants in one of the most prominent Jan. 6 criminal cases.

The Oath Keepers are charged with conspiring to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6 to prevent the Electoral College votes certification of the 2020 presidential election.

However, according to the motion, after reviewing the evidence provided by prosecutors during discovery, defense attorneys in both Oath Keepers cases also say they have “not found one iota of proof” that defendants “had any plan, intention, design, or scheme to specifically enter the Capitol Building on J6.”

This corresponds to ADN's earlier reporting. In August 2021 ADN cited a Reuters report that said:

The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials.

ADN added a quote from a former senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation who said: “there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol…”

In addition to noting the presence of embedded federal law enforcement assets on the ground at the Capitol, the footnote says, the Oath Keepers “were being monitored and recorded prior to J6.”

Not only that but the FBI reportedly tried to recruit some of the defendants charged in these cases.

The Epoch Times reports that:

Jeremy M. Brown, an Oath Keepers member from Florida who was charged with two Jan. 6-related counts but is not part of either major Oath Keepers conspiracy case, told The Epoch Times earlier this year that the FBI unsuccessfully tried to recruit him in 2020 to spy on the group.

Brown said the same agents who later arrested him for alleged Jan. 6 crimes tried to recruit him on Dec. 11, 2020, to become a confidential informant. He refused. He was arrested on Sept. 30, 2021, when dozens of federal agents swarmed his Florida property.

From the earliest arrest of Jan. 6 defendants, there has been extensive speculation about the role federal law enforcement played that day. This has raised conspiracy theories about the riot being a ‘false flag' operation instigated by federal agents.

While, as ADN previously reported, there has been little evidence of that, the valid questions about the role of these federal assets or informants have only continued.

And so has the federal stonewalling.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Jan. 11, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz challenged top FBI officials on the subject, repeatedly asking how many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6, and if any committed crimes.

However, Cruz was repeatedly stonewalled by Jill Sanborn, executive assistant director of the FBI's national security branch, who kept saying: “I can't answer that, sir.”

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.