Dozens of people on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist were reportedly in Washington, D.C., when the riots took place at the Capitol last week.
A majority of those individuals in the Terrorist Screening Database were suspected white supremacists, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The database is separate from the government’s “no-fly” list. Those on the list, a database that includes hundreds of thousands of names, are not automatically barred from public places, nor are they constantly watched by the government.
The database allows law enforcement to pay closer attention to those individuals should they encounter them.
The FBI declined to comment to the Washington Post on the matter.
Authorities have opened 170 cases investigating those who may have committed crimes during the riots. It is unclear whether any of those cases are about people on the list.
On Monday, ABC News reported that an internal FBI bulletin said armed protests were being planned for all 50 state capitols in the lead-up to the inauguration.
“The FBI received information about an identified armed group intending to travel to Washington, DC on 16 January,” the document reportedly said. “They have warned that if Congress attempts to remove POTUS via the 25th Amendment, a huge uprising will occur.”
“As we do in the normal course of business, we are gathering information to identify any potential threats and are sharing that information with our partners,” an FBI spokesperson told the Washington Examiner in response to reporting on the purported bulletin. “The FBI respects the rights of individuals to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights. Our focus is not on peaceful protesters, but on those threatening their safety and the safety of other citizens with violence and destruction of property.”
Leading to Inauguration Day, the FBI warned that the extremist “boogaloo movement” presents a significant threat and that it and groups like it “very likely pose the greatest domestic terrorism threat in 2021.” It added that followers of the boogaloo movement “seek a politically motivated civil war” and “may exploit the aftermath of the Capitol breach by conducting attacks to destabilize and force a climactic conflict in the United States.”
