The FBI has acknowledged that 274 plainclothes agents were present in the crowd on January 6, 2021.
A senior congressional source said the number is not necessarily a surprise, since the FBI often embeds countersurveillance personnel at significant events.
Until now, the FBI has refused to discuss how many agents or informants were present.
The news comes in the wake of claims by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General that the FBI had no undercover personnel in the January 6 crowds.
“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,” the DOJ OIG said in an 88-page report released in December 2024.
