FBI Is Investigating Whether ‘The Call Was Coming From Inside The House’

Update to January 6 MAGA/QAnon Insurrection: Was The Call Coming From Inside The House?

Some new developments.

POLITICO reports that a Trump appointee was arrested in connection with the Capitol riot:

The FBI on Thursday arrested Federico Klein, a former State Department aide [serving as a special assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs], on charges related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, marking the first known instance of an appointee of President Donald Trump facing criminal prosecution in connection with the attempt to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.

Klein, 42, was taken into custody in Virginia, said Samantha Shero, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

An FBI lookout bulletin issued two weeks after the Capitol assault included a photo of Klein, prompting two tipsters to contact the FBI and finger him as the man in that picture, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Washington.

The affidavit says video from police body-worn cameras on Jan. 6 shows Klein jamming a riot shield into doors at the Capitol as police were trying to secure them to keep the mob out. Klein was also heard on video trying to encourage others to clash with the police, the complaint says.

“We need fresh people, we need fresh people,” Klein shouted repeatedly, according to the complaint. In much of the video, he is wearing the Trump campaign’s trademark “Make America Great Again” red hat.

Klein is charged with several felonies, including assault on police officers, interfering with police during civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding, as well as lesser offenses.

It’s a start. I suspect that we are going to learn about a number of government/congressional employees in the coming weeks.

CNN reports, Federal investigators are examining communications between US lawmakers and Capitol rioters:

Federal investigators are examining records of communications between members of Congress and the pro-Trump mob that attacked the US Capitol, as the investigation moves closer to exploring whether lawmakers wittingly or unwittingly helped the insurrectionists, according to a US official briefed on the matter.

The data gathered so far includes indications of contact with lawmakers in the days around January 6, as well as communications between alleged rioters discussing their associations with members of Congress, the official said.

The existence of such communications doesn’t necessarily indicate wrongdoing by lawmakers and investigators aren’t yet targeting members of Congress in the investigation, the official noted. Should investigators find probable cause that lawmakers or their staffs possibly aided the insurrectionists, they could seek warrants to obtain the content of the communications. There’s no indication they’ve taken such a step at this point.

With about 300 people facing charges, the investigation has shifted from the roundup of what law enforcement officials consider low-hanging fruit arrests of people accused of participating in the riot to those who allegedly conspired and planned the assault to disrupt the constitutional process of congressional certification of the election results.

Justice Department officials have assigned more than two dozen prosecutors, including some from outside Washington, to delve into more complex questions, including possible funding of insurrectionists and whether political figures, including lawmakers and staff, aided the attack, the US official said.

Law enforcement officials say one of the first steps taken after the insurrection was to seek cell phone tower data to try to identify people at the Capitol that day, a tactic allowed under existing law. That was necessary, the officials say, because among the multiple failures that day was the US Capitol Police allowing the hundreds of people who had attacked the building to leave without arrest.

Law enforcement officers have used what they call an “exclusion list.” The list lets investigators see mobile devices that were authorized to be in the Capitol — such as for Congress members and staff, law enforcement and other government and public safety officials — while sifting out people who were not authorized to be in the building, according to a federal court filing in a riot-related case.

Coconspirators and accessories Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who gave aid and comfort to the MAGA/QAnon insurrectionists and gave incitement to them on January 6, wanted to know from the FBI Director if just maybe the FBI had anything on them.

FBI collection of phone metadata and geolocator data — permissible under federal law — was the subject of multiple lines of questions this week by some senators who pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray to reveal what investigators were doing with communications and financial data. Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Josh Hawley of Missouri suggested at a hearing Tuesday that the FBI could be overstepping its authority by scooping up communications data.

Politicususa adds, Josh Hawley Gets Really Nervous About The FBI Using Cellphone Data To Track The Terrorist Attack He Incited:

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) helped to incite the terrorist attack on the Capitol and appeared nervous about the FBI using cellphone data to track the attackers.

Hawley was very curious about the legal authority and the tools that the FBI is using to collect the cellphone data as part of its investigation into the Capitol attack.

Sen. Hawley asked FBI Director Wray, “When you say you’re not familiar, are you saying you don’t know whether or not the bureau has scooped up geolocation data, metadata from cell phone towers? Are you saying you don’t know if they did that? Tell me what you know about this.”

Hawley also wanted to know what the FBI was doing with data from cellphone towers during the attack, “Here’s what I’m trying to get at, and I think it’s what senator Lee was trying to get at. How are we going to know what you’re doing with it, and how do we evaluate the bureau’s conduct if we don’t know what authorities you’re invoking, what precisely you’re doing, what you’re retaining? You said to him repeatedly you weren’t familiar with the specifics. You’ve now said it to me. I’m not sure how this committee is supposed to evaluate anything that the bureau is doing. You’re basically saying, just trust us. How do we know? Do we have to wait until the end of the investigation to find out what you’ve done?”

Sen. Hawley seemed to have multiple purposes with his line of questioning. He appeared to be laying the groundwork to discredit the FBI investigation as a “deep state” conspiracy, and he also did not seem to want the FBI to be focusing on metadata that could show any potential coordination between the terrorists and Republican members of Congress.

The FBI is using the cellphone data also to investigate members of Congress who may have provided aid or assistance to the terrorists, and it looks like this fact has Josh Hawley nervous.

CNN continues:

Investigators also have Capitol Police security footage that Democrats want examined to see if any members gave tours to riot participants in advance of January 6. Democrats have accused unnamed Republicans of providing rallygoers access, suggesting they were surveillance opportunities ahead of the riot.

Other lawmakers have a separate concern, that as investigators move closer to the activities of lawmakers, some members of Congress could use the protections of the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause to try to block the work of the FBI. The clause provides legal immunity to members of Congress when carrying out their legislative duties.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, says he’s asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate because he believes Congress will be able to get information that the FBI may have trouble getting because of the Speech or Debate protections.

Whitehouse, in a telephone interview with CNN, says his effort is aimed at “making sure this isn’t an investigation that is limited to the individuals who assaulted and entered the Capitol on January 6,” adding that “potential culpability by members of Congress” has to be investigated.

The new phase of the federal probe is along the lines federal officials outlined after the attack. Acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin said that after the initial stage of rounding up rioters, prosecutors and investigators would begin examining more difficult aspects: including the funding and organizing of the riot, the likely interviews of lawmakers and even whether incitement at the rally held by President Donald Trump before the riot broke any laws. Prosecutors have also pushed to bring sedition charges against some alleged rioters, a step awaiting approval from the Justice Department, according to people briefed on the matter.

Sherwin has announced he will move to the Justice Department to help manage the cases for a period while the department sets out a longer-term plan for a sprawling probe that will stretch months.
Justice officials are mindful of the political and constitutional implications of parts of the investigation, particularly any that touch on members of Congress, according to law enforcement officials.

So far, investigators haven’t found evidence that members of Congress knowingly aided or were involved in the insurrection, the US official said. The FBI has seized devices belonging to alleged rioters and has found communications that show connections that investigators plan to examine further.

In some cases, there is data showing past contact with lawmakers, and in others there’s communications between alleged rioters discussing their associations with members of Congress. Some alleged rioters have also claimed to have provided security for lawmakers.

In one case against an alleged leader of the right-wing paramilitary group the Oath Keepers, a defendant has claimed she was enlisted to provide security to legislators and others in their march to the Capitol.

None of this necessarily indicates wrongdoing by any lawmakers, the US official said.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Wray said he couldn’t provide details about specific steps the FBI has taken while the investigation is ongoing.