F.B.I. Didn’t Instruct Informants to Encourage Violence at Capitol, Report Says

The review acknowledged that several informants were in Washington on Jan. 6, but said that only a handful were collecting information for the F.B.I. that day, contrary to conspiracy theories.

More than two dozen F.B.I. informants were in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, but contrary to widespread conspiracy theories, bureau officials did not order anyone to break the law as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol that day, according to a report by a Justice Department watchdog released on Thursday.

After a nearly four-year investigation, the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, also determined that the F.B.I. had not stationed any undercover agents in the crowd that gathered at the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s electoral victory over Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election.

In his nearly 90-page report, Mr. Horowitz said the bureau “undertook significant efforts to identify domestic terrorism subjects” who planned to travel to the Washington area on Jan. 6. But he criticized its leaders for failing to recognize the potential dangers posed by the rioters before they descended on the city.

Moreover, he specifically chided the F.B.I.’s top ranks for failing to follow through on their promise to canvass their field offices for intelligence on potential threats after the 2020 election.

Referring to the informants, Mr. Horowitz wrote that both the F.B.I.’s central headquarters and its Washington field office “could have taken an additional step to leverage an intelligence resource that is unique to the F.B.I.” that might have mitigated the violence, but did not.

Bureau officials responded to the report with a two-page memo, saying that they had addressed the shortcomings identified in the report, while disputing unspecified “factual assertions” made by Mr. Horowitz’s team.