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FBI director Christopher Wray said the bureau considers the Jan. 6 Capitol attack an act of domestic terrorism and suggested that serious cases would still come under its ongoing criminal investigation.
Testifying before Congress on Thursday, the director besieged Donald Trumps about a stolen presidential election. We don’t see evidence of fraud that could change the outcome of the election, he told lawmakers on the House judiciary committee.
Wrays’ testimonies came as federal prosecutors charged six members of a rightwing militia group with conspiracy to assault the Capitol, the latest in a series of such charges that began Jan. 6.
Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly grilled Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, over what they said were intelligence failures that kept law enforcement for deadly attacks.
The FBI’s inaction in the weeks before Jan. 6 is surprising, said Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the judiciary committee in the House. It’s hard to tell if the FBI headquarters just missed the evidence flagged by your field offices and available online for the whole world to see or if the bureau saw the intelligence, underestimated the threat, and simply failed to act.
A Senate report recently concluded that the deadly uprising was planned in plain sight but warnings went unnoticed due to a disturbing combination of poor communication, poor planning, faulty equipment and lack of leadership. .
Wray said nearly none of the 500 people charged so far with participating in the attack have been under FBI investigation previously, indicating it was difficult for the FBI to track them down earlier.
You can be sure that we’ll take a closer look at how we can do better, how we can do more, how we can do things differently in terms of collecting and spreading intelligence, Wray said.
Thursday’s charges against the six men, all from California, were revealed in a lawsuit kept in federal court in Washington. Two of them, Alan Hostetter and Russell Taylor, were seen the day before the brawl with Roger Stone, a friend and adviser to Trump, at a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court against the outcome of the presidential election. in 2020.
About 30 people along with members of two other rightwing groups, the Oath Keepers and The Proud Boys have been charged with conspiracy, the most serious charge associated with the riot. The pending cases are the largest and most complex of the nearly 500 brought by the justice department since the attack.
Asked if the FBI is investigating Trump or Stone, Wray said he could not confirm or deny any FBI investigation.
I’m talking about Mr. Big, No. 1, Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen said, referring to Trump. Have you ever chased people who cause trouble?
Wray replied: I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to discuss whether or not we are or arent investigating specific individuals.
Wray also faced questions about the recent passing of ransomware attacks against major U.S. companies. The FBIs director told lawmakers the bureau discouraged ransomware payments to hacking groups.
We policy it, our guidance, from the FBI, that companies should not pay a ransom for a number of reasons, Wray said.
Recently, hacked companies including Colonial Pipeline and JBS, the largest meat processing company in the world, admitted paying millions to hackers to regain control over their computer systems.
The justice department said it obtained the majority of ransomware payments made by Colonial Pipeline after finding the virtual wallet used by hackers.
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