FBI Director Says ‘Definitive Answer’ Coming on Key Jan. 6 Question

The FBI director was asked about confidential sources that may have been present during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

FBI Director Kash Patel testifies before the Senate Committee on Appropriations and a related subcommittee about the FBI's proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 8, 2025. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday that his agency will attempt to produce an answer on whether there were FBI agents or sources in the crowd at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, during the counting of the electoral votes for the 2020 U.S. election.

“People have had questions about January 6th and whether or not there were FBI sources—not agents, sources—on the ground during January 6,” Patel told Fox News on Wednesday. “And I told you I would get you the definitive answer to that. And we have, and we are in the process again of working with our partners to divulge that information, and it is coming.”

Without going into details, the FBI director said that the agency’s findings may “surprise and shock people because of what past FBI leaders have said about it.”

In December 2024, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Inspector General’s office released a report on the events of that day that found that 26 FBI confidential sources were in Washington in connection to Jan. 6. Four of those sources entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, while 13 entered the restricted area around the building, it said.

The report stressed that “we found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6.”

Fox News’ Bret Baier asked Patel Wednesday about statements made by former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who told Congress that 26 FBI confidential sources were in and around the Capitol on Jan. 6, but not actual agents.

Responding to that question, Patel said that it is “definitely a piece of the truth.”

“Why it took a ton of time in questioning in Congress for the director to get that point is what I’m trying to eliminate from the FBI,” Patel said. “If Congress asks you a question under oath, whether or not there were sources, in and around January 6 at the Capitol, you as the FBI director need to know that and not to deflect and give a D.C. answer. You have to be prepared for that. That’s the answer we are giving. That’s the answer that Chris Wray should have given.”

Elsewhere in the Fox interview, the FBI director also said that there will be “answers coming” in other investigations launched by the bureau, including what the FBI has said were pipe bombs that were placed outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee buildings in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021.

Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino said in a post on Memorial Day that officials have launched new efforts in the pipe bomb investigation as well as confirming new probes into cocaine that was found in the White House during the Biden administration and the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane effort that sought to find alleged collusion between the President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government.

The FBI said in 2024 that a $500,000 reward is still being offered for information leading to the arrest of the Jan. 6 pipe bomb suspect, while this year, a former FBI official said that the bureau is seeking new leads. No suspects or persons of interest have been identified in the case.

“Maybe allegiances have changed or relationships have changed, and it’s time to report [on the suspect],” former FBI official David Sundberg told CNN in January. Sundberg no longer works for the FBI, according to his LinkedIn page.

“Tips from the public really have been very helpful but, as I mentioned, we’re still trying to identify the suspect,“ he said. ”So we’re trying to release a little more information such that maybe it will jog somebody’s memory.”