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09 January 2021
Among the hypotheses that are following the FBI agents who are investigating the assault on Congress, there is also that among the thousands of Trump supporters who invaded Capitol Hill there could be someone with the intention of killing or taking hostage deputies, senators or their assistants.
Attention, federal sources reveal to the Washington Post, focuses on people arrested for possessing weapons, or other items that could be used for acts of violence against individuals.
The hunt is for those who left a pipe bomb outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican committees, while the man driving the truck where 11 Molotov cocktails were found was arrested.
The photos that show how some rioters were holding plastic handcuffs, such as those used by the police, are suspicious.
"We are not thinking of a big conspiracy, but we are curious to know what they wanted to do with these handcuffs," says one of the investigators, noting that at the moment no photos or videos have emerged that would show that these rioters wanted to take hostages.
One possibility the FBI agents are considering is that the people holding the handcuffs used by the police were actually agents, or former law enforcement officers.
Indeed, in the last few hours it has been confirmed that officers and policemen from other states arrived in Washington on Wednesday for the day for Trump.
Like Chris West, an Oklahoma county sheriff, who admitted to a press conference yesterday at the rally, but denied having set foot in Congress, denying that the photo circulated on social media is his.
In Texas, the Bexar County Sheriff announced that one of his deputies, Roxanne Mathai, is under internal investigation after posting photos of her appearing inside Congress.
No charges have been brought against the agent.
The FBI insists on the urgency to determine if there has been a preordained and coordinated plan for the assault on Congress in order to identify those responsible in view of the new call for mobilization that is circulating on the social accounts of the US far right for the 17th. January.
"Just because you have left Washington, it is not certain that you cannot receive someone at your door if we discover that you have participated in a criminal action", is the warning that Steve D'Antuono, the head of the FBI of Washington, has sent to the rioters.
And indeed, arrests were made in Arkansas and Florida between yesterday and today.
And West Virginia State Congressman Derrick Evans, who participated in the assault, documenting everything with live video, was indicted.