FBI Director Chris Wray said on Thursday that the agency is “tracking a host of troubling online chatter.” That includes calls for armed protests leading up to the president-elect Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration.
He said possible rallies and protests in national capitals could attract individuals armed near officials and government offices.
“We’re looking at individuals who might be eyeing to repeat the same kind of violence we saw last week,” Wray said in his first public comments since pro-Trump. rioters stormed the Capitol.
According to Wray, the FBI has identified more than 200 suspects since the January 6 attack. He warned, “If you’re out there, an FBI agent will come looking for you.”
Details about suspects are increasingly coming to light.
Some of them have been identified as current or former police or military.
One is a retired Air Force officer, who was arrested in Texas last weekend after allegedly seen in a viral photo with zippered plastic handcuffs in the Senate Chamber. A prosecutor said Thursday he wore them because he intended to “take hostages”.
“He wants to take hostages. He wants to kidnap, restrain, maybe try, maybe execute,” Assistant Attorney Jay Weimer said of retired Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr.
A law enforcement official told CBS News that a Washington DC police officer saw rioters using military-style hand gestures to communicate in the Capitol during the attack. Identifying people using small unit military tactics is one of the “top priorities” for an incendiary task force led by the DCUS law firm. CBS News’ reported Catherine Herridge.
Federal authorities have charged more than 40 people in connection with the riot.
Photo by Ting Shen / Xinhua via Getty
Contributions: The Associated Press