The Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence office was aware of “specific” threats ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, but it failed to warn state and local enforcement adequately ahead of the attack, according to a redacted internal report.
The DHS Office of Inspector General found that the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis dropped the ball in the days leading up to an insurrection in which thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the joint session of Congress from certifying election results.
“I&A identified specific threat information related to the events on January 6, 2021, but did not issue any intelligence products about these threats until January 8, 2021,” according to the inspector general report released Tuesday. “Open source collectors in I&As Current and Emerging Threats Center collected open source threat information but did not produce any actionable information.”
The report shows a breakdown within the office and in communicating with external partners. It is significant because I&A is legally required to share all threat information with relevant law enforcement agencies yet failed to do so on this occasion.
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Investigators concluded that I&A investigators were not trained well enough to know what to do with the information they had about people planning to bring weapons or attempt to enter the Capitol. While some information was shared with state and local law enforcement, it was sent via email, which lessened its significance compared to if I&A had issued an announcement.
Within three I&A components (Current and Emerging Threats Center, Counterterrorism Mission Center, and Field Operations Division), each had intelligence predicting the violence that would unfold but shared it with one another and were unsure about flagging it to other agencies. Some staff members were unsure about sharing outside I&A because of a previous incident in which the data it collected portrayed it had been spying on members of the press. Specifically, during monthslong riots in Portland, Oregon, in mid-2020, I&A compiled information about members of the media covering the riots.
DHS agreed to implement the inspector general’s five recommendations, including providing employees with annual training and creating tools to collect and disseminate that information.
A DHS spokesman said the department has stepped up its efforts to flag all kinds of national security threats to government and nongovernmental organizations, including by issuing announcements, which it refers to as “intelligence products.”
“Over the past fourteen months, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has strengthened intelligence analysis, information sharing, and operational preparedness to help prevent acts of violence and keep our communities safe,” the spokesman wrote in an email. “Since last January, DHS also issued more than 95 intelligence products related to domestic violent extremism, including five National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) bulletins to contextualize the threat environment for the public and provide resources for how to stay safe.”
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The DHS inspector general report is one of many commissioned by the department, the Government Accountability Office, and Congress. The GAO concluded in 2021 that the government should have been able to predict the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6 and been better prepared.
