FBI Director Christopher Wray Testifies Before Congress on January 6th Capitol Attack

Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 2, 2021 to answer questions from lawmakers about events that transpired during the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The hearing focused on what the FBI knew leading up to the attack and its general response to the rising threat from domestic violent extremists.

Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “Unfortunately, January 6 was not an isolated event. The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now, and it’s not going away anytime soon.” He continued that it is difficult to directly pinpoint many of the ideological motivations behind the individuals involved.

So far, around 300 people have been charged in relation to the Capitol riots with charges ranging from trespassing to conspiracy and assault. Wray said that the attack on the Capitol seemed to inspire other extremists. The FBI currently has over 2,000 open investigations into domestic terrorism, double the number of active probes in 2017.

Wray defended the FBI’s handling of information leading up to the January 6th attacks. After the FBI received an indication that there would be “war” on January 6th, they shared that information in several ways with the Capitol Police and Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department. He furthered, “As to why the information didn't flow to all the people within the various departments that they would prefer, I don't have a good answer for that."

Capitol security officials have indicated they did not receive sufficient intelligence to prepare them for the scale of the attack. Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said in a separate hearing, “none of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred.”

During the hearing, many Republican lawmakers asked Wray to expand more on the influence of left-wing extremists and threats posed by them, but Wray was adamant in saying that the blame from the January 6th attack belonged with right-wing extremists and militia groups. These groups included the Oath Keepers paramilitary group and the Proud Boys.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said, “We're not serious about attacking extremism if we care about some government buildings being attacked but not others. We're not serious about attacking domestic extremism if we only focus on white supremacy movements, which isn't the only ideology that's responsible for murders and violence."

However, Sen. Richard Durbin, (D-IL) said, “Let's stop pretending that the threat of antifa is equivalent to the white supremacist threat. Vandalizing a federal courthouse in Portland is a crime. It should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But it is not equivalent to a violent attempt to overthrow the results of elections, nor is it equivalent to mass shootings targeting minority communities."

Wray continued to stress that the FBI prioritizes combating all violent extremism and noted that “terrorism today, and we saw it on Jan. 6, moves at the speed of social media." He warned about the use of encrypted messaging platforms, which are often used to evade law enforcement.

Wray said, “If we don't collectively come up with some kind of solution, it's not going to matter how bulletproof the legal process is, or how horrific the crime is, or how heartbreaking the victims are. We will not be able to get access to the content that we need to protect the American people. And then I think we will all rue the day."