Questionable allegations about the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 are receiving new and considerable attention online. The attention stems from a June 14 article in the right-leaning blog Revolver, headlined “Unindicted Co-Conspirators in 1/6 Cases Raise Disturbing Questions of Federal Foreknowledge.”
The article asks — but does not directly attempt to answer — whether unidentified people mentioned as “unindicted co-conspirators” in federal charging documents linked to post-January 6 arrests are actually government informants or agents. It also asks whether such figures were “instigators” during the storming of the Capitol. The article cites circumstantial evidence, including the fact that informants and undercover agents were involved in the FBI thwarting an October 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government.
This comparison is misleading; the plot against Whitmer never came to fruition, as is the case with the majority of plots that end in criminal charges from the FBI. Additionally, as noted by several observers, including Reuters crime reporter Brad Heath, government agents and informants cannot under almost any circumstances be parties to a conspiracy, as a matter of definition. “So you’ll see undercovers and informants described in many ways in gov’t legal filings, but *never* as co-conspirators,” Heath added in a tweet.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence in the Revolver article and the dubious logic underpinning its assumptions, Fox News host Tucker Carlson treated Revolver’s questions as a matter of fact. In a June 15 television segment and accompanying editorial, Carlson claimed that Revolver had demonstrated that the insurrection was “organized, at least in part, by government agents.” Carlson’s comments significantly amplified the insinuations of the Revolver article; “Tucker Carlson” and “The FBI” were trending on Twitter on June 16. A clip from Carlson’s show posted to Twitter by US Representative Matt Gaetz also has at least 6,000 shares and 254,000 views. Revolver’s article received at least 5,800 shares on Facebook. — First Draft staff
