Jim Jordan presses Wray on testimony FBI had confidential sources at Capitol on Jan. 6

"It suggests that the FBI cannot adequately track the activities and operations of its informants, and that it lost control of its CHSs present at the Capitol on January 6," Jordan continued.

By Ben Whedon

Published: September 19, 2023 8:42pm

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Tuesday pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland for a briefing on the FBI's use of confidential human sources (CHS) at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and asked that he provide documents related to the matter.

Jordan renewed his request for documents to Wray following Tuesday testimony from former Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Washington Field Office (WFO) Steven D'Antuono, who said that the bureau knew that some of its CHSs would be present for the events of Jan. 6 in advance.

Jordan letter to Wray

"D'Antuono explained that due to the large number of CHSs present at the Capitol, the WFO asked FBI Headquarters 'to do a poll or put out something to people saying w[ere] any CHSs involved' so the FBI could try to ascertain how many CHSs had been in attendance," Jordan wrote. "D'Antuono stated after the outreach from Headquarters was 'when we started getting responses back.' As one example, he recalled that a CHS from the Kansas City Field Office was on site at the Capitol and had allegedly been in contact with his handler while at the event. The CHS reported to his handler 'while they were in the crowd, I think, saying that they were going in. They were trying to stop some of the action happening and they left or whatnot.'"

"This new information is extremely concerning. It suggests that the FBI cannot adequately track the activities and operations of its informants, and that it lost control of its CHSs present at the Capitol on January 6," Jordan continued.

Jordan requested that the FBI arrange a briefing on its handling of CHSs present at the Capitol during the episode and provide Congress with documentation of CHSs that were present. He further repeated his request for documents related to Christopher Steele, Bruce Ohr, and Igor Danchenko, all of whom were key figures in the Trump-Russia collusion investigation at special counsel John Durham's probe.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.