FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress on Thursday that the Capitol riot of Jan. 6 cannot be compared to “the horror” of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, despite such comparisons being deployed by some.
Rep. Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat, brought up the topic as Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, telling the FBI chief, “You’ve compared ransomware to 9/11. Ransomware is awful, and it’s a problem. 9/11 was awful. But the insurrection on our Capitol, unlike anything known since the Civil War, is also awful. Where would you compare the insurrection, and would you admit that it was an insurrection on our Capitol, with the assault on our country on January 11th?”
Wray acknowledged the violence at the Capitol in January was wrong and was being prosecuted, but he flatly rejected any comparison to 9/11.
“First, let me just say that I don’t think any attack, ransomware or January 6th, can fairly be compared to the horror of September 11th and the 3,000 or so individuals who lost their lives that day,” Wray said. “And that attack, and my engagement with the victims in my last time in government, was a big part of why I came back into this role in the first place. My reference to September 11th in the context of ransomware was not about the attack, but about how the country came together in response.”
Cohen referenced an interview that Wray gave to the Wall Street Journal last week, in which the outlet said the FBI director had compared Russian ransomware attacks to 9/11, saying, “There are a lot of parallels, there’s a lot of importance, and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention. … There’s a shared responsibility, not just across government agencies but across the private sector and even the average American.”
Wray added: “Now certainly, when it comes to January 6th, it’s a unique type of attack, not just in terms of the number of individuals but in terms of the effort to disrupt a key part of our constitutional system and the peaceful transition of government, which is such a hallmark of our country. So, it’s a very significant attack of its own right, and certainly, we have, as we’ve already talked about, close to 500 arrests. We have all of our field offices fully engaged, and the amount of manpower devoted to it is extremely significant for one attack, absolutely.”
SENATE REPORT SAYS THREE OFFICERS DIED BECAUSE OF CAPITOL RIOT
President Joe Biden, in his speech in front of a joint session of Congress just before his 100th day in office, called the Capitol riot “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
This was met with criticism by Republican politicians and conservative commentators, who pointed to 9/11, presidential assassinations, other foreign attacks, domestic terrorist attacks, last summer’s riots, and other attacks on the Capitol.
Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked planes and killed 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001, crashing into and destroying the World Trade Center, where more than 2,600 people died. The terrorists also successfully rammed a plane into the side of the Pentagon, which killed the 59 passengers and crew on board the aircraft, as well as 125 people inside the Pentagon. It is believed that a likely target of hijacked United Flight 93 was the U.S. Capitol, but a passenger revolt on board ended with the plane crashing into a Pennsylvania field that was a short flight from Washington, with all 40 passengers and crew dying.
Republicans have also noted that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated a few days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, although a few Confederate generals held out for a few more months. Presidents James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were all also assassinated. President Teddy Roosevelt was shot, and President Ronald Reagan was shot and nearly died.
Conservatives have also pointed out that the Japanese military’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 killed 2,403 people, and the domestic terrorism bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killed at least 168 people. The Weather Underground bombed the U.S. Capitol in 1971, and the May 19th Communist Organization bombed the Capitol in 1983. Four Puerto Rican Americans shot and injured five members of Congress inside the Capitol in 1954.
The Justice Department investigation into the Capitol riot has often pointed to violence against officers by rioters and has focused on actions taken by groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Last Friday, the Justice Department said that it had arrested 465 defendants so far, charging 130 people with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, with more than 40 alleged rioters charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious injury to police.
Capitol Police announced that Officer Brian Sicknick died on Jan. 7, one day after rioters broke into the Capitol as lawmakers counted electoral votes to affirm President Joe Biden‘s victory over former President Donald Trump.
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The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, led by Francisco Diaz, told the Washington Examiner in April that Sicknick’s “cause of death” was “acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis” (a stroke) and the “manner of death” was “natural.” Diaz told the Washington Post that Sicknick died after suffering two strokes, did not suffer an allergic reaction to chemical irritants, and bore no evidence of either external or internal injuries, but he contended that “all that transpired played a role in his condition.“
