In a recent sit-down interview with Tucker Carlson, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) made an incredible claim about the protest-turned-attack that day: He alleges at least 200 FBI agents, dressed in MAGA clothes, were imbedded in the crowd of Trump supporters.
“The objective was to destroy the entire MAGA movement,” Higgins said. “To forever stain the patriotic fervor that was associated with the ‘America First’ movement.” The liberal newspaper cited court documents as evidence.
Even if that alleged objective is untrue, the public now knows the FBI was involved weeks and months before January 6. In the controversial Proud Boys group, which led the demonstration at the U.S. Capitol, the FBI had as many as eight informants feeding it information months before the "Stop the Steal" rally took place, The New York Times reported two years ago. The liberal newspaper cited court documents as evidence.
Ignoring the label of a conspiracy theorist, Higgins has not shied away from his claims of FBI involvement on January 6. Last year, at a November congressional hearing, he grilled FBI Director Chris Wray about the allegation busloads of FBI agents were dropped off at the Union Station parking garage before blending in with Trump supporters.
“These buses are nefarious in nature and were filled with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters,” Higgins flatly said, pointing to a photo of parked buses.
Rep. Higgins’ confrontation with Wray and the claim of “ghost buses” that hauled the fake Trump supporters earned the GOP congressman a mocking story at Huffington Post, the liberal news website. The story, published last November after the hearing, mocked Higgins and others for concocting an “alternate reality” in which “FBI provocateurs” tricked Trump supporters into attacking the Capitol.
To help bolster its mockery, the Huffington story quoted a fellow GOP lawmaker, Rep. Barry Loudermilk. He said he believes federal agents in plainclothes were at the Capitol that day only because it is standard practice for law enforcement to blend in to observe a large protest.
Farther down in the story, Loudermilk also warned the Post about proving or disproving theories in what appeared to be a knock against Rep. Higgins and his “ghost bus” claim.
In a more recent story, published last week by Roll Call, Rep. Loudermilk appeared to be taking a more distrustful view about January 6. As chair of an Oversight subcommittee, Loudermilk is now accusing Democrats of hiding video and documentary evidence on their partisan January 6 Committee, the story said.
“My objective is to get to the unbiased truth of what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and enact changes to ensure it never happens again,” Loudermilk told Roll Call. “The American people have a right to know what really happened, supported by facts and without political spin.”
