For the growing community of January 6 activists—a ragtag mix of MAGA figures, relatives of imprisoned rioters, and rioters who have served their sentences—Trump’s nomination of Patel is an indication that retaliation is coming. And part of that retribution isn’t just about granting pardons and clemency to rioters: it’s about going after those who put them behind bars in the first place.
At least since the 1990s and the Waco siege, the anti-government movement in the United States has seen the FBI as its enemy. Trump’s first presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic made anti-government animus widespread. That animosity was fueled by investigations and prosecutions of Jan. 6 supporters, as well as federal investigations of Trump. And the narrative took hold that both Trump and the January 6 defendants are “political prisoners” of a corrupt and tyrannical “Biden regime,” persecuted by his personal Gestapo in FBI uniforms.
The MAGA media ecosystem and the J6 activist network believe that Patel, if he takes the reins of the FBI, will root out corruption, expose all sorts of nefarious plots designed to harm Trump, and show that J6 was a false flag.
“The FBI deserves Kash Patel,” Suzzanne Monk, a prominent J6 advocate, wrote in X. “They earned the cries he brings.” “That Kash Patel election put the traitors in our government on notice,” MAGA commentators The Hodge Twins wrote on X.
“How many FBI agents were present at J6?” wrote Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, in X. “We’re about to find out.”
Representative. Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana, weighed in through a post addressed directly to Wray. “Mr. Wray. Stay close to DC. Your presence will be commanded,” Higgins wrote in
Philip Anderson, an accused rioter facing federal and misdemeanor charges on Jan. 6, said on X that they will have to wait and see if Patel and Trump put their money where their mouth is. “We won’t take them seriously until they end J6 prosecutions on day one.”
So far, beyond his Truth Social post, Trump hasn’t said much about whether he plans to make good on his promises to grant pardons and clemency to January 6 supporters. Some hopeful defendants have sought to delay their proceedings or even drop charges entirely. Some lawyers are unsure whether Trump would seek a blanket pardon for everyone involved on Jan. 6, or grant pardons and clemency selectively based, for example, on the types of crimes people are charged with.
Meanwhile, Riggleman suggests that Patel faces an uphill, if not impossible, battle to be confirmed as head of the FBI. Patel former colleagues From various points in their career they have questioned their competence to run the agency. “If there’s anyone who’s sane, I don’t think the Senate will confirm them,” Riggleman said. “But of course, there are senators who are very afraid of Donald Trump and their own re-election prospects.”