U.S. President Donald Trump on September 27 accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of playing the role of "instigator" in the "Congress mountain riot" in 2021, "secretly placing" more than 270 agents in the crowd, in violation of relevant regulations.
Trump: The FBI violates settlement agents
Trump tweeted on Twitter: “I just learned that the FBI violated all regulations and secretly placed 274 agents in the crowd before and during the ‘fraud’ on January 6, 2021. This may differ from what FBI Director Christopher Ray has always said! Yes, it turns out that the role played by the FBI agents in the January 6 protests may be instigator and rebellor, but not ‘law enforcement’.”
Trump asked the then FBI officials to explain this. The FBI has not responded yet.
This is the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2024.
Christopher Ray was the FBI director appointed by Trump during his first presidential term, and his predecessor, James Comey, was fired by Trump at the time. Comey was out of office and out of office for investigating whether the Trump campaign team had conspired with Russia to interfere in the U.S. elections (i.e. “to Russia”).
A large jury of the federal district court in eastern Virginia decided on Thursday to prosecute Comey on charges such as “false statements” and “interference with congressional procedures”.
Ray also offended Trump by participating in a series of investigations involving him, and left early in January this year. During his tenure, the FBI participated in the investigation and arrested the participants of the "Capitol Hill Riots".
After Trump's 2020 presidential campaign failed again, he declared that there was "massive fraud" in the election. On January 6, 2021, a large number of Trump supporters broke into Congress and interrupted the joint meeting of the two houses that certified Democrat Biden to win the presidential election. The riots resulted in five deaths, hundreds of police injured and millions of dollars in property losses. On January 20, this year, Trump took office on the first day of signing an executive order to pardon about 1,500 participants in the "Congress Hill Riots" and reduce the sentences for 14 participants in the "Congress Mountain Riots".
US media: “cleaning” against law enforcement agencies
The US media reported on the 27th that the FBI recently fired a number of agents who participated in the Floyd protest in 2020. They were photographed kneeling on one knee during the protest. People familiar with the matter said that about 20 people were fired.
On May 25, 2020, an African man, Freud, was killed by police kneeling to his neck, sparking a wave of opposition to law enforcement violence and racial discrimination across the United States.
This is a flower placed in front of Freud's tomb in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2023.
According to the Associated Press, the behavior of these agents kneeling on the ground made some people angry within the FBI, but others thought it was a "tactic" to calm the anger of demonstrators and ease the tension.
A number of fired FBI agents are prosecuting the federal government, accusing it of “remembering” those who have investigated Trump or his supporters.
The New York Times that the dismissal was part of a "cleaning" operation launched against U.S. law enforcement agencies after Trump returned to the White House. Before Trump returned to the White House in January, the FBI had investigated him several times, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election "to Russia", the 2021 "Congress mountain riots" and the 2022 Sea Lake estate "coding wave" investigation.
This is the FBI headquarters taken in Washington, USA on August 15, 2022. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie
According to the Associated Press, last month, the FBI laid off at least five agents and senior managers, all of whom were involved in Trump's related investigation. Three of them recently filed a lawsuit, accusing Patel, the current director of the FBI, the FBI and its Ministry of Justice of launching "retaliatory actions" and dismissing them without justifiable reasons. They said in the lawsuit that Patel hinted that the FBI's firing of them "may be illegal", but that "the White House and the Ministry of Justice are determined to fire all the agents who have investigated Trump".
At a congressional hearing last week, Patel denied the decision to obey the White House, saying the FBI agents were fired because they “failed to meet the bureau’s standards.”
The Trump administration has previously dismissed a number of officials, most of whom have participated in the “Congress Mountains riots” investigation.The U.S. Cable News Network cited informed news reports that the FBI submitted to the Department of Justice in February this year an information sheet of FBI employees who have participated in the “Congress Mountains riots” investigation, containing detailed information about more than 5,000 people (reporter: Wang Wang, Color, Bear, Ocean).