Rep. Jerold Nadler, 73, (D-N.Y.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, hammered 54-year-old FBI Director Christopher Wray, wrangling over semantics, when Nadler demanded that Wray call the Jan. 6 riot and mob scene an “insurrection.” “This is a very ongoing investigation and there’s a lot more to come,” Wray told Nadler and the Judiciary Committee. “I would expect to see more charges—some of them may more serious charges,” vaguely referring to possible criminal suspects without naming names. Nadler hoped Wray would name 74-year-old President Donald Trump or certain Republican members of Congress, who apparently gave some tours of the House the day before the Jan. 6 riot. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) impeached Trump Jan. 11, 2020 for “incitement of insurrection,” causing the violent Jan. 6 Capitol, events that forced House members into hiding.
Wray said the FBI considers the Jan. 6 riot and mob scene an act of “domestic terrorism,” but stopped far short of calling it an “insurrection.” Pelosi and nine other House impeachment managers led by Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) tried Trump in the U.S. Senate before his Feb. 13, 2020 acquittal. Democrats tried but failed to introduce bipartisan legislation to form a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot and mob scene, something Democrats consider a coup d’etat. “In my role as FBI Director, because that’s a term that his legal meaning, I really have to be careful about using words like that,” Wray told the Judiciary Committee, refusing to use the term “insurrection.” Democrats lost their impeachment case for “insurrection” against Trump precisely because no rational senator could convict Trump of something he didn’t do. Insurrection implies that Trump tried to topple the U.S. government.
Even when you say the obvious, it doesn’t pass the smell test now and certainly didn’t pass when the Senate acquitted Trump of “incitement of insurrection” Feb. 13, 2020. Had Pelosi and her Democrat managers not had so much partisan zeal against Trump, they might have gotten a conviction on a more reasonable charge. It was hard to convince a Senate jury that Trump committed “incitement of insurrection” because the Jan 6 rabble-rousers didn’t come armed with semiautomatic weapons or assault rifles. Most the Capitol trespassers came armed with cell phones, preferring to take selfies than seek to injure elected officials. Yet to partisans like Nadler, they wanted Wray to admit that Trump and his followers engaged in “insurrection.” Wray had little to say to Nadler about the FBI’s lack of preparedness for Jan. 6 when the Capitol and D.C. police did little to prepare for the violence.
Whatever happened on Jan. 6, everyone can agree that the Capitol and D.C. police were blindsided, allowing events to get out of hand. “The FBI’s inaction in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 is simply baffling,” Nadler said. No one thinks that the FBI, Capitol or D.C. police were prepared for any contingency on Jan. 6. When the inauguration rolled around Jan. 20, the Capitol and D.C. police called in the National Guard to stake out a cordon police cordon around the Capitol. “It is hard to tell whether the FBI headquarters merely missed the evidence—which had been flagged by our field offices and was available online for all the world to see—or whether the Bureau saw the intelligence, underestimated the threat, and simply failed to act,” Nadler asked Wray. Wray said that the FBI’s Virginia field notified the Capitol Police Jan. 5, putting the onus back on local authorities.
Wray told Nadler that the Virginia field office told the Capitol Police Jan. 5 that extremists were traveling to the Capitol preparing the commit violence. Whoever dropped the ball, it was certainly the FBI and local police officials. Giving the Capitol police less than one day warning was not enough to take the threat seriously. Only after Jan. 6 did the Capitol Police ask the Natural Guard for reinforcements preparing for the Jan. 20 Inauguration. By the time the Inauguration took place, Capitol, D.C. police and National Guard were well-prepared for any contingency. Nothing happened to disrupt Biden’s inauguration. Nadler wanted to know whether the FBI had Trump or 68-year-old dirty trickster Rogers Stone in their cross hairs. “You can be darn sure that we are going to be looking hard at how we do better, how we can do more how we can do things differently in terms of collecting and disseminating intelligence,” Wray said.
Nadler wanted to know whether Trump or Stone were in the FBI’s crosshairs, something Wray was not prepared to say. “I’m talking about Mr. Big, Number One,” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), referring to Trump. “Have you gone after the people who incited the riot?” asked Cohen. “I don’t think its would be appropriate for me to be discussing whether or not we are or aren’t investing specific individuals,” Wary told Cohen. Wray found himself caught between a rock-and-a-hard-place, because its abundantly clear the FBI gave inadequate notice on the rises Jan. 6. Democrats wanted to blame Trump for delivering an incendiary speech on Jan. 6. But FBI officials have confirmed that advanced planning of the Jan. 6 rabble-rousers. Democrats continue to blame Trump for Jan. 6, when it’s clear that that Capitol violence was planned for months before the Jan. 6 riot and mob scene.
