On October 12, former President Donald Trump repeated false claims about the deadly January 6 attack, suggesting in a social media post that President Joe Biden placed FBI agents within the crowd.
The January 6, 2021 insurrection, when a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block the peaceful transfer of power after Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, happened while Trump was still in office. The election results were certified the following day, and Biden was inaugurated on January 20, 2021.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM – DO SOMETHING!!!”
This claim follows a similar one he made on social media in late September and echoes long-standing conspiracy theories alleging government involvement in directing the attack, despite multiple reports and investigations disproving these allegations.
A Justice Department inspector general report released in December 2024 found no evidence that FBI employees were undercover among the protestors at the Capitol.
The report stated there were 26 FBI confidential sources—not agency employees—who independently attended January 6 events in Washington, D.C. Of those, three were tasked with reporting on potential domestic terrorists that day, and four entered the Capitol without FBI authorization.
The 274 agents Trump referred to appear to be the number of FBI agents sent to respond to the escalating crisis at the Capitol, dispatched after the riots began.
FBI Director Kash Patel, appointed by Trump, posted on X on September 27 that “274 FBI agents were thrown into crowd control” on January 6, contradicting Trump’s claim, though he criticized the deployment as “against FBI standards.”
The riot resulted in several deaths, including a protester who was shot while trying to reach fleeing lawmakers. A Capitol police officer died from strokes the day after the attack, and four other officers have died by suicide since. Over 150 officers were injured, many with lasting effects.
By the end of 2024, more than 1,400 people had been arrested and over 1,000 sentenced for crimes related to January 6. After Trump began his second term in January 2025, he commuted the sentences of 14 convicted individuals and granted full pardons to over 1,200 people convicted in connection with the riots.