FBI Concerned Jan. 6 Footage Would Expose Undercover Agents, Informants: Whistleblower

FBI Director Christopher Wray prepares to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 15, 2022. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

FBI officials were concerned that footage from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, would show undercover agents and confidential informants, a whistleblower said in testimony revealed on May 18.

George Hill, a retired supervisory intelligence analyst who worked out of the FBI’s Boston field office, recounted that the bureau’s Washington field office (WFO) pressured officials in Boston to open investigations on 138 people who attended a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, even though there were no indications the people violated the law.

Boston officials pushed back, saying they would need evidence, such as footage of individuals inside the Capitol, to open investigations of the individuals.

“Happy to do it. Show us where they were inside the Capitol, and we’ll look into it,” one official was quoted as saying.

“We can’t show you those videos unless you can tell us the exact time and place those individuals were inside the Capitol,” WFO officials responded, according to Hill.

Hill said Boston officials questioned why they couldn’t get access to the tranche of some 11,000 hours of footage from inside the Capitol.

“Because there may be—may be—UCs, undercover officers, or ... confidential human sources, on those videos whose identity we need to protect,” Washington-based officials responded.

Hill recounted the discussions during testimony to the U.S. House’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The clip from the testimony was played during a hearing on May 18 and detailed in a report the panel released based on whistleblower disclosures.

The FBI declined to address Hill’s testimony.

“The FBI’s mission is to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people. The FBI has not and will not retaliate against individuals who make protected whistleblower disclosures,” the bureau told The Epoch Times in an email.

In an image from an undated video, FBI whistleblower George Hill, right, testifies to Congress. NTD via The Epoch Times

Wray Testimony

Marcus Allen, another FBI employee who has also become a whistleblower, has alleged that he was retaliated against because he shared an email with other FBI workers that questioned whether FBI Director Christopher Wray was truthful while testifying to Congress.

“You believe that Christopher Wray indicated that there were no confidential informants, no FBI assets that were present at the Capitol on Jan. 6 that were part of the violent riot, isn’t that right?” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a member of the subcommittee, asked Allen.

“Yes, sir,” Allen said.

They appeared to be referring to testimony given behind closed doors.

After playing the clip of Hill’s comments, Gaetz said, “You got retaliated against for the very thing, for saying the very thing that the Washington field office was telling Boston.”

Wray told one congressional panel in a public hearing in late 2022 that he wouldn’t say whether the bureau had confidential sources embedded among the Jan. 6 protesters.

“As I’m sure you can appreciate, I have to be very careful about what I can say, about when we do and do not, and where we have and have not used confidential human sources,” Wray said. “But to the extent there’s a suggestion, for example, that the FBI’s confidential human sources or FBI employees in someway instigated or orchestrated Jan 6th, that’s categorically false.”

“You should not read anything into my decision not to share information about confidential human sources,” Wray added later.

Garret O’Boyle, another FBI special agent who is now a whistleblower, told the House panel that he was pressured by at least one agent based in Washington to violate FBI policy and also the law by serving grand jury subpoenas against a person who was the subject of an anonymous tip.

“They tried to get me to serve a federal grand jury subpoena when there was no proper predicate to do so,” O'Boyle said on May 18.

From left to right: Suspended FBI special agent Garret O’Boyle, former FBI agent Steve Friend, and suspended FBI agent Marcus Allen during a hearing in Washington on May 18, 2023. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Informant, Undercover Police

During the trial of some Proud Boys members, an FBI informant testified that he helped to block law enforcement officers and entered the Capitol. The informant hasn’t been charged.

Dozens of people who appeared to commit crimes, or definitely committed crimes, on Jan. 6 have also gone uncharged, sparking questions about their affiliations.

Attorneys for the Proud Boys have alleged that there were at least 50 people in the crowd on Jan. 6 who were undercover police officers or agents, or informants.

At least three undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers were in the crowd, it was revealed in a different case. Body camera footage from undercover police officers has been made public.

Among the defendants who have been charged is former FBI agent Jared Wise. He was arrested in May on multiple charges related to Jan. 6, including knowingly engaging in disorderly conduct with intent to impede government business.

Wise worked for the FBI through 2017, the government said in court filings.

Wise also was a contractor for Project Veritas, the nonprofit journalism group that specializes in recording surreptitious video, from February 2018 through May 2018, a spokesman told The Epoch Times in an email.

“During his time at Project Veritas, Mr. Wise did not partake in any ‘January 6’ related actions—given the fact that January 6 occurred well over two years after he had already departed the organization,” the spokesman said.

Wise’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.