Former Assistant FBI Director Suggests Congressmen, Trump Officials Should Be Arrested for Capitol Riot
Frank Figliuzzi, who served as assistant director for FBI Counterintelligence under Obama, said Tuesday that members of Congress as well as certain Trump administration officials might need to be arrested in order to prevent a repeat of the January 6 Capitol riot.
“Arresting low-level operatives is merely a speed bump, not a roadblock. In order to really tackle terrorism — and this time domestically — you’ve got to attack and dismantle the command-and-control element of a terrorist group. And unfortunately, and I know this is painful to hear, that may mean people sitting in Congress right now, people in and around the former president. That’s how you do this. Otherwise recruitment, inciting, and cult-like leadership continues to recruit people to violence.”
WATCH: “Arresting low-level operatives is merely a speed bump not a road block," @FrankFigliuzzi1 says.
"In order to really tackle terrorism … you've got to attack and dismantle the command and control element.”
“That may mean people sitting in Congress right now." pic.twitter.com/Cn6HlTS9Zq
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 8, 2021
Figliuzzi, an MSNBC national security contributor, did not point to any specific crimes that members of Congress or Trump’s inner circle may have committed, instead seemingly implying that law enforcement action be taken primarily as a deterrent tactic. While few would argue that the rhetoric of the former president and his surrogates did not contribute to the violence of that day, fewer still would contend that Trump could be held legally liable for it.
In the early days following the riot, there was speculation that certain members of Congress, including the controversial Marjorie Taylor Greene, may have given tours of the Capitol building to soon-to-be rioters in an attempt to to assist them in their efforts. No evidence has emerged to substantiate those claims, including in the bipartisan Senate report on the Capitol riot that was released Tuesday.
Previously, Figliuzzi has blasted the Trump administration for ordering flags at half-mast until August 8 after the 2019 El Paso shooting earlier that month, calling the date, 8/8, “very significant in the neo-Nazi and white supremacist movement.”
“Now I’m not going to imply that he did this deliberately but I am using it as an example of the ignorance of the adversary that’s being demonstrated by the White House,” he said at the time.
