In the wake of the Capitol riots, which left four dead and 52 arrested, a former FBI agent shared a message of reassurance and warning: the culprits will be found.
In an interview on America’s Newsroom on Thursday, former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Danny Coulson shared insight into the steps that will be taken to track down those who committed the egregious acts of violence on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is asking for any information that may help identify the pro-Trump protesters that participated in the violence as lawmakers were in the process of certifying the Electoral College votes won by Joe Biden.
“We know that this was instigator-generated. It didn’t just happen,” Coulson said. “There were people there that came to do it and generated it and caused this horrible mayhem.”
While it may seem next to impossible to find those that caused the mayhem, Coulson said that there are plenty of ways that justice will be served.
“First of all, cameras. There are cameras all over the place,” he said. “Also, remember that those police officers that were attacked, they had body cameras on…FBI and Secret Service and other institutions have very good facial recognition ability and they captured all that stuff,” he added. “It all becomes digitized.”
He urged that in the coming days and weeks, law enforcement agencies will have plenty of information.
“The FBI will see if other people were involved in other riots. There is a possibility. There is a culture in this country, people go from riot to riot,” he said. “They will have the cell phones of the people that got arrested. That’s going to be a treasure trove of information.”
Coulson, who worked for the FBI on Capitol Hill for many years, also praised the Capitol police for their acts of heroism.
“I know the Capitol police are taking a lot of hits,” he said. “They protected those members. They didn’t protect the building, but a lot of members up there who are very fragile and had they confronted these rioters think of the injuries that would have occurred,” he added.
“They acted valiantly. Not well prepared, but acted with heroism, as far as I’m concerned.”
Perhaps one of the most widely asked questions after the riot ensued is: why weren’t police more prepared?
Coulson said that they should have been more prepared, but that it was quite unexpected for a Trump march to turn violent.
“I think they should have been, but I think one thing to remember is that Trump rallies are historically very very peaceful and I think they were shocked at what happened. I think they didn’t account for agitators. I think that is the problem,” he said.
“The chief of police from L.A. is right. I dealt with crowd control, and I will tell you, once they get going you can’t stop them. There’s a very significant visual image of a lone Capitol policeman in a stairway trying to fight off the mob by himself. Why weren’t there more people there? I think that’s a question that has to be answered. It was scary,” he added.
Trump is too powerful for the deep state, they feel they must destroy him now so he’ll never return politically, In my opinion this was another planned coup to remove him for good. Just another act in the deep state playbook. I for one will never desert him, he’s the best thing that happened to America in my lifetime
Trump supporters are very peaceful; it was antifa and blm who infiltrated the crowd, by the busload, that caused the mayhem and were violent. Some have already been identified by FBI agents; it remains to be seen if the FBI will hold them to account or not. I don’t trust the FBI to do the right thing! The violence has NOTHING whatever to do with President Trump or his true supporters!!
They have already at least 2 of them being Antifa…one from NYC and the other one from philly. They are being paid to do this. It was definitely planned, maybe by someone in the whit house…just wondering?
Wow these comments are crazy call it what it was insurrection by Trump supporters and far right conspiracy theorists . Folks they have tapes & video . Amazing they arrested over 150 so far that are parts of the above mentioned.
Enough bring our country together and realize Donald trump lost fair and square . Now try and heal . This attack on the people’s house was a disgrace and an historic failure
It seems we all agree that storming the Capitol was the wrong thing to do, whoever did it. The perps are identifiable by some pretty good photography. Are you willing to accept what group they belong to if they are located and arrested and are in the widely posted photographs? Or are you going to come up with some conspiracy why that really isn’t them in the photograph?
To anyone who thinks it was Trump supporters,…..You’re just as daft as the next guy. Those were Antifa/BLM style tactics. Marauding, violence, and and a pure disrespect for this country. One thing about us Trump supporters is we respect our country and its heirlooms. I respect the positions I don’t respect the politicians I respect authority but I don’t respect authoritarians or oathbreakers. I we would respect the inside of that chamber and not destroy anything at all because that’s not what we want. And we know that that would look bad on him that would be used against us how fucking stupid can you be. Their mission was simple destroy the movement because it became powerful it became so powerful and Donald Trump became powerful and was a direct threat and is a direct threat to the deep state and the globalists and they are destroying every bit of him and guess what now they’re going to come after us. It’s gonna be a sad day when people come after me so I’m gonna put them back in a body bag all of them l kill all they send, And they will stop coming. Do you hear me Democratic Congress I dare you to come after me I’ll send them all back on with fucking toe tags. The movement is destroyed we will never have it again because of what happened. That’s why Donald Trump can’t say much more because he knows it’s done he’s done that was a nail in his coffin. That was organized and executed. Pence is a traitor also you keep your best spy right next to your enemy. Pence stabbed him in the back when simple he’s a globalist. But he sure fooled us didn’t he. I don’t see any hope for this country and I think they won and all we can do now is try to survive will never have another shot at saving this country it’s over the dream is over communism won. You can’t fight the media is too powerful people are so fucking stupid they believe anything like half of you idiots thinking it was Trump supporters so somebody put on a trump hat and automatically their supporter you’re such a fucking moron. And if any of you motherfuckers that are on the left or something to say to me give me your address and I will fly out where you live and will fight and I’ll beat the fucking crap out of you I’ll put a fucking boot your head. Because people like you are only brave over a keypad
I hope the truth comes out. I do not believe these people were Trump supporters. They had backing of a source that need to come out just as much as they need to be prosecuted! Why didn’t Any of the people that were involved with the riots, looting and destruction as well as harassment of people last year be brought to Justice. Their acts were as horrific if not worse than the acts of these few. I guess what I am trying to say is why weren’t people alarmed at what has happened over the last year as much as they were alarmed as what happened over the last few days something is very very wrong.
Donald J Trump is my President
Why did Capitol Police willingly open barricades and welcome the marchers in?
This was a setup. Video readily available for those interested.
I knew from the start that the assault was not committed by Trump supporters. The purpose of the assault was to disrupt the Electoral College and they did that successfully and scared the bejabbers out of the members who then elected crooked Biden without a whimper – Mission accomplished!
The democrats sent Antifa so they could blame it on Trump and Trump supporters. How do these filthy criminal democrats stay in our government and not get charged for all their corruption! They have been in there too long and have abused the American taxpayers for way too long. Their illegal corrupt abusive coups and abusive harassment for 5 years is disgusting. Then they get in through voter fraud! When will justice for the American people be served against these corrupt Pelosi, Corrupt Schumer, and corrupt democrats!
I don’t understand why there isn’t a class action brought up for Big Tech? Why China is trying to buy up real estate within and around US, obviously we know…Why DoJ isn’t going to put out info about foreign countries who changed votes, etc..