Proponents of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories are probably accustomed to embarrassing setbacks, but last week was especially brutal. The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, unveiled the detailed findings of a four-year investigation, which concluded that while there were FBI informants at the Capitol, no FBI officials were responsible for instigating the attack.
Once these revelations were released, Donald Trump, left with no choice, grudgingly acknowledged reality.
No, I’m just kidding. The president-elect actually published an item to his social media platform, shortly before midnight on Friday night, that cynically tried to move the goalposts.
“Wow! This is big news,” the Republican wrote. “What a disgrace. Let J-6 Hostages out NOW!!!”
This came on the heels of Vice President-elect JD Vance taking a related step, pretending that humiliating news for Jan. 6 conspiracy theorists should actually be seen as evidence that helps Jan. 6 conspiracy theorists.
But these efforts are literally unbelievable. As we discussed last week, too many Republicans and their allies have spent nearly four years pushing the idea that federal law enforcement instigated the insurrectionist assault. The absurd claims grew so common that they were given a name: The “fedsurrection“ narrative was rooted in the idea that it was the FBI, and not Trump’s rabid followers, that was responsible for the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
This has never made any sense. As a Washington Post analysis noted last week, “If the bureau’s leaders disliked Trump (even though the FBI director was appointed by him), they only had to wait two weeks for him to be out of office.”
Nevertheless, we already knew — from congressional investigations and multiple federal court cases — that the conspiracy theory was baseless. To the extent that there were still any lingering doubts, the Justice Department’s inspector general erased them in unambiguous detail.
To hear Trump tell it, the fact that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants is evidence of a “disgrace.” But that’s preposterous: The far-right conspiracy theory wasn’t that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants. We already knew this. Some even testified during Jan. 6 criminal cases.
Rather, the conspiracy theory was that the FBI was somehow responsible for instigating the attack and entrapping Trump’s poor, unsuspecting supporters. Horowitz’s report — the one the president-elect seemed so excited about — discredited the bizarre idea. Not only did the IG conclude that the FBI informants weren’t authorized or encouraged to break the law, but the same findings made clear that there were no undercover FBI employees at the Capitol, either.
Nevertheless, the incoming president is very likely to reference last week’s revelations when he prepares pardons for Jan. 6 criminals. In fact, as part of Time magazine’s latest cover story on Trump, published last week, the Republican not only said he intends to issue these pardons, he added that he hopes to do so “maybe” within “the first nine minutes” of his second term. I’m not quite sure how that would work — perhaps he’ll interrupt his own inaugural address? — but time will tell. As for the nature of Trump’s plan, NBC News reported that the president-elect has expressed confusion about key elements — he’s said, for example, that he thinks most or all Jan. 6 defendants were being held in a Washington, D.C., jail, for example, when in fact only a handful of defendants are still being held pretrial — and even some of the Republican’s allies have expressed concern about his “level of awareness of the details.” Watch this space. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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