Cotton To Top FBI Official: 'Did The DOJ Or FBI Have Any Plainclothes Officers' In Capitol On Jan 6?

button Mr Olsen on July 28 2020 you signed a public letter attacking the Trump Administration for using Department of Homeland Security officers to help protect the federal courthouse in Portland from violent rioters that letter stated quote plane close officers and unmarked Vehicles should be used only in limited capacities and clearly identified circumstances crowd control is not among those circumstances Mr Olson on January 6 2021 did the Department of Justice or FBI have any plain closed officers among the crowd at the Capitol Senator I'm not aware of whether or not there were plainclothes officers in in in in among the crowd uh at the Capitol in January on July on January 6th did any plane flows officers enter the capital on January 6th I I don't know the answer to that senator um Mr Olsen I got to say your answers to many questions today are disappointing because they boil down to essentially I don't know did you prepare for this hearing did you know this hearing was happening before this morning the direct answer yes I I prepared extensively Senator I many of the questions are about specific uh and from specific facts that I don't have well I mean let me what was that I I think that's one of the most important points that I would emphasize is um you know it's against a general General matter it's not appropriate to comment on ongoing investigations well I'm not I didn't ask you about an ongoing investigation but I just flipped to the cover of my binder here it says the title of this hearing is the domestic terrorism threat one year after January 6th the attorney general has repeatedly said this is one of the Department's highest priority you're testifying of hearing about the domestic terrorism threat one year after January 6 and you can't answer questions about how many people have been charged for events arising on January 6th would would you go into a briefing with the attorney general your boss and not be able to answer such basic questions on the last question you asked Senator uh over 700 people have been charged in connection with January 6th about 325 have been charged with serious felonies in connection with uh 10 minutes ago Senator Cruz asked you this series of questions and you didn't have the answer you didn't have the answer for how many people have been charged with violent defenses or non-violent offenses and so on and so forth have you been given my answer in the last 10 minutes I I'm and I I'm sorry if I misunderstood Senator but I I believe that Senator Cruz was asking me about uh other events not the January okay um let's turn to another issue that came up earlier today Ray Epps uh during the January 6 riots last year Mr Epps was caught on video several times they seemed to encourage uh people to enter the capital to break down police barriers uh video from the rallies or from the rally down the National Mall early in that day shows him doing the same thing uh video even from the night before shows him encouraging people to enter the capitol Ray Epps lives in Arizona he didn't exactly go underground after January 6 he even gave an interview to local media and he was well known to the Department of Justice he was on the FBI's Capital Riot Most Wanted page just days after January 6th in fact he was one of the first 16 suspects added to that Most Wanted page on your website it does not appear that he's been arrested or charged in any offense in July without explanation he was removed from the FBI's Most Wanted page Mr Olsen who is Ray Epps and why was he removed from the FBI's most wanted list Senator I don't have any information about that individual um I would deferred it to miss Sanborn for any additional so but so okay so this is it gets back to what I I meant earlier like asking if you're prepared for this hearing I'm you're the Assistant Attorney General for National Security you run the National Security division the department has said that these January 6 prosecutions are one of their highest priorities this is a man who is on the Most Wanted page for six months do you really do you really expect us to believe that you've never heard of the name Ray UPS or you don't know anything about him I simply don't have any information at all uh Senator about that individual what other what other Suspects on the Most Wanted page do you know nothing about um Senator let me ask you this can you name anyone else on can you name anyone else on the department of Justice's Most Wanted page I'm sorry I I'm sorry I I didn't hear your question can you name anyone else on the department of Justice's Most Wanted page from the January I'm not familiar with the most Wanted page no I'm not familiar with that all right well I guess we're gonna have to seek our answers elsewhere but this has not been a stellar performance today Senator Whitehouse are you online I am

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 1,125,227

Keywords: Sen. Tom Cotton, Matthew Olsen, January 6

Id: CiDqA-X_-n4

Length: 5min 29sec (329 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 11 2022