FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that he had not read an FBI report that cited the threat of an attack on Congress until “days” after the January 6 rebellion on Capitol Hill.
Wray admitted to senators that he did not see the warning – supposedly describing preparation for “war” with “broken glass, doors kicked” – even after the violence that interrupted President Biden’s victory.
“Well, Senator, I think the intelligence or the information you are asking for is the much discussed Norfolk CRS or situational information report,” Wray said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“I didn’t see that report, which was unverified intelligence, until a few days after the 6th.”
But Wray has repeatedly defended the way the FBI is handling intelligence, which he said was passed from the agency’s Norfolk Field Office to the Washington area police forces on January 5.
“That raw, unverified information was passed on in about 40 minutes to an hour to our partners, including the Capitol Police, including Metro PD and not one, not two, but three different ways, an email, a verbal and another through the application law portal, ”said Wray.
The FBI was among the federal agencies that sent officials to help restore order to the Capitol on the night of January 6, after windows and doors were actually broken into, as the Norfolk report warned that it was possible.
The degree of planning for the riot remains unclear. The Wall Street Journal’s video analysis identified members of the Proud Boys as being at the forefront, including the violation of a police perimeter while then President Donald Trump was still talking to supporters near the White House.
Wray told the senators that “there were certainly aspects that were planned and coordinated”.
Describing the Norfolk memo, Wray said: “My understanding is that this information was posted online with a nickname or pseudonym. It was unverified and unverified information, but it was – and it was somewhat aspirational in nature – but worrisome. It was worrying and specific enough that we, our people in Norfolk, thought we needed to get it out there, even though we hadn’t had a chance to corroborate or examine it. “
Wray said the FBI passed on the information properly.
“The e-mail [from the FBI] itself, went to, I think there may be up to five officers from the Capitol Police Task Force on the Joint Terrorism Task Force. And the objective of the Joint Task Force against Terrorism is for the chosen representatives of the partner agency to be present in real time so that everyone has the same information, so that each agency can use that information to do what it needs. But in addition to the e-mail – then a belt and suspenders – he was informed verbally, ”said Wray.
“And thirdly, in addition, it was placed on LEAP, the law enforcement portal, to ensure that everyone received it. But having said that, I do not consider what happened on January 6 to be an acceptable outcome. And that is why we look so hard and find out how the process can be improved. “
Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned after the riot, testified earlier to Congress that he was not informed of the FBI alert by his subordinates.