The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the FBI issued a report last week that detailed at least 26 FBI Confidential Human Sources (CHSs) were present at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

There are limitations imposed on the OIG in an investigation like this. If the office found 26, there were likely more. The OIG’s mandate is limited to interviewing current FBI employees only. If the FBI was working with Capitol police, and the Capitol police had a CHS, the OIG would not learn of or report on this because of lack of jurisdiction. The same with the CIA and other three-letter agencies. And, if agents were involved, all they had to do was retire or move to another agency to avoid investigation. The report does not detail the total number of agents that might have had information but fell out of purview.

If you look at the report, you will see in the methodology who was not interviewed. The OIG could not interview anyone that was not currently employed by the FBI. For example, the report details at least David Bowdich, Jeff Sallet, John Brown, Terry Wade, and Stephen Laycock all declined to be interviewed. A footnote reads: "One former FBI TFO [Task Force Officer] declined our interview request." In another telling statement, the OIG acknowledges an inability to subpoena or compel testimony from former department employees and third-party witnesses.

In other words, the OIG only spoke to people who are with the FBI and who cooperated. The office did not speak to any third parties or former FBI employees. Nor did it speak to anyone outside the FBI that might have been working with the FBI at the time. In short, the OIG spoke to a limited number of cooperating FBI agents.

Interesting -- because of the vague reference to third-party witnesses, we don't know the full list of people who might have had information but were not interviewed.

Also, in the methodology, the OIG does not reference subpoenaing any documents. The report lists how many documents were received and reviewed, 500,000. How do we know there are not 1,000,000 documents that should have been looked at? We don't.

Although the report details 26, it is likely there were more. We had a statement in 2022 and 2023 that there were so many CHSs, the FBI lost track. 26 does not seem like a number you lose track of.

While it is a milestone that we know of 26 CHSs who were at the Capitol on J6, it is doubtful that we have all the information about all the law enforcement operatives who were involved.

The first number is the number that sticks with people. I strongly believe that there were more law enforcement assets deployed on J6, and that this report is intended as a distraction. That number will increase in 2025 if team Trump does some digging. When we talk about this report, we should all agree to say, "at least 26 CHSs were involved in the events on J6", and continue to press for accuracy and accountability.

This is a great partial win in that it acknowledges some FBI involvement. It will not be the last word.

Maker S. Mark (a pseudonym) is a patriot who can understand and explain advanced math and science, and is worried about the state of the nation and how to solve the problems we face. United we stand, divided we fall.

Image: Tyler Merbler