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Warnings of violence before Jan. 6 precipitated the Capitol riot

Law enforcement agencies failed to heed mounting warnings of coming violence as Trump propelled his supporters to Washington in a last desperate attempt to overturn the election results.

Click to view the original at washingtonpost.com

Hasnain says:

I’ve only read the “before” article (this whole piece) so far and it’s a harrowing account of political, intelligence, and legal failures that culminated in the events of Jan 6. Worth reading.

“The memo — like the others before it — was jarringly prescient. But it also betrayed the FBI’s long-running institutional unease with investigating domestic extremism. The document cautioned that the people who had made the threatening posts “have been identified as participating in activities that are protected by the First Amendment. … Their inclusion here is not intended to associate the protected activity with criminality or a threat to national security.”

To some inside the FBI, that cautionary language was a telling example of how the bureau tempered its reaction to threats of violence from White, middle-aged and middle-class Americans.”

Posted on 2021-10-31T18:15:53+0000