According to recently released emails, many agents sympathized with the insurrectionists while the FBI investigated the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

According to a warning email written to a senior FBI official by someone with obvious connections to the bureau, a "sizable percentage" of FBI personnel sympathized with the Jan. 6 insurrectionists and thought the disturbance at the U.S. Capitol was "no different than the BLM protests."

The sender's name is obscured in the email, which is one of numerous records the FBI published this week. Despite the subject line reading "Internal concerns," the documents reveal that the email came from an address outside the bureau.

Paul Abbate, the FBI's current second-highest official, received the email and replied an hour later with a thank-you note.

The communication from January 13, 2021 included a stern warning about how people should feel about the uprising within the bureau:

“I literally had to explain to an agent from a ‘blue state’ office the difference between opportunists burning and looting during protests that stemmed legitimate grievance to police brutality vs. an insurgent mob whose purpose was to prevent the execution of democratic processes at the behest of a sitting president,” the email states. “One is a smattering of criminals, the other is an organized group of domestic terrorists.”

Additionally, it relayed worries from bureau agents:

"I've spoken to multiple African American agents who have turned down asks to join SWAT because they do not trust that every member of their office's SWAT team would protect them in an armed conflict."

The email didn't surprise criminal defense attorney Mark Nicholson. He said, "this information doesn't reveal anything that I didn't already know. Unfortunately, it another confirmation of my suspicions about the FBI and law enforcement in general."

A representative of the FBI declined to comment on the email.

Although there may be some sympathy for the Capitol rioters within the FBI, the agency's investigations have still helped the Justice Department bring charges against over 900 attendees of that day's riots. Numerous defendants have been sentenced to prison for their crimes. Dozens of people have consented to assist the FBI in their investigations.

Though there has been opposition. Stephen Friend, an FBI special agent, was demoted earlier this year for declining to take part in the prosecution of Jan. 6 demonstrators. Republican lawmakers praised Friend's attitude and dubbed him "patriotic."

Attorney Nicholson added, "the FBI email provides fresh insight into a problem that has plagued American law enforcement for decades, dating back to the FBI's COINTELPRO days."

The federal government largely disregarded a 2009 warning about extremists recruiting police officers and military personnel.

A 2019 analysis by the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that hundreds of active duty police officers were involved in racist, Islamophobic, and anti-government Facebook groups ten years after the events that led to their discovery. The Plain View Project compiled hundreds of offensive and racist posts made on Facebook by police personnel. A leaked database of members of the Oath Keepers, an armed extremist group, included more than 200 persons who claimed to work for police agencies. The Oath Keepers are the subject of one of the largest cases to result from Jan. 6.

If you believe you have been the victim of unfair police targeting, contact the Law Office of Mark Nicholson at 317-667-0718.