Rep. Andy Biggs echoes conspiracy theory blaming FBI for Jan. 6 riot

Rep. Andy Biggs is boosting a conspiracy theory spreading in conservative circles that the FBI may have helped instigate the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, echoing a report on Fox News last week.

Biggs, R-Ariz., noted FBI Director Christopher Wray didn’t give credence to such allegations during a recent appearance before the House Judiciary Committee. Even so, Biggs said he wanted more information about the FBI’s possible role.

Like most House Republicans, Biggs voted in May against creating a bipartisan commission to investigate the origins of the Jan. 6 riot, saying it would be a political move to blame Republicans and former President Donald Trump. That effort passed in the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate.

Appearing Tuesday on conservative commentator Charlie Kirk's radio show, Biggs was asked about allegations that were laid out last week by Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson suggesting unindicted co-conspirators in the probe of the Capitol riot could be people working with the FBI.

“It truly demands answers,” Biggs told Kirk. “It is actually very troublesome to hear what's out there and we need to get to the bottom of that.

“I want to know if there were 20 FBI agents, and they were not there for security for the president, why were they in that crowd?” said Biggs, who heads the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

“There's always been allegations of the media being in there, right?” Biggs continued. “We've seen some evidence of that. But if you have law enforcement that's there that could have stopped, thwarted, whatever, and they didn't? That's a problem. But moreover, Charlie, I mean, think about this: The FBI director said that the vast majority of people there were peaceful — peaceful protesters. They were rowdy, but they were peaceful. Were they infiltrating a peaceful protest? To what end would that be?”

A Biggs spokesperson did not respond to a request to clarify Biggs’ remarks.

Other prominent conservatives, including Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., have pushed a similar narrative.

Media outlets such as the Washington Post and New York Times have dismissed the allegations as “unfounded,” pointing out that unindicted co-conspirators cannot by law include people working with the FBI, but could be people cooperating with federal prosecutors.

The Post reported that the allegations seem to have surfaced from a report on a website from "a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 over a past appearance on a panel with a white nationalist, Peter Brimelow, at a conference attended by well-known white nationalists."

Biggs’ questions about a government role in perhaps triggering the Capitol riot come as other Republicans have sought to recast the violence of a pro-Trump mob into the actions of leftists with “antifa” or an excessive reaction by authorities to something more akin to a "normal tourist visit."

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., has suggested Ashli Babbitt, a San Diego woman shot to death by a Capitol police officer as she tried to climb through a barricaded door, was “murdered.”

Biggs and Gosar were two of the three members of Congress identified by Ali Alexander, the self-styled architect of the “Stop the Steal” movement that sprang up after Trump lost his 2020 reelection bid.

On the eve of a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, Alexander credited Biggs and Gosar, along with Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., for helping to make the gathering happen.

They "schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting," Alexander said. 

Alexander called Gosar the “spirit animal” of the effort.

Biggs strenuously has denied he had any connections to Alexander. He has said he had not "had phone, text, social media, or email contact" with Alexander.

Even so, he made audio remarks that Alexander played at a December rally in Phoenix. Biggs’ office has said the taped remarks were made at the request of Gosar's aides and provided to them, not Alexander.

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

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