WASHINGTON – On Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz highlighting the IG’s failure to respond to the senators’ previous requests about the government’s use of confidential human sources (CHS) and undercover agents on January 6, 2021 (J6).

On Dec. 16, 2024, the senators wrote to IG Horowitz requesting information based on the IG’s review of DOJ’s use of CHSs on J6. Specifically, the senators wanted to know the extent DOJ components, like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), had tasked and untasked CHSs in the area of the Capitol Building on J6.

On April 7, 2025, IG Horowitz responded, noting that “ATF, DEA, USMS, and BOP did not have any tasked CHSs in Washington, D.C. on January 6 in connection with the events of January 6.”

However, IG Horowitz could not make a similar assertion regarding whether untasked CHSs from DOJ components, other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), were in the D.C. area on J6 and connected to events that day. “[U]nlike the FBI, we have no information at this time as to whether the ATF, DEA, USMS, or BOP conducted a post-January 6 canvass to determine if any of their CHSs traveled on their own initiative (untasked) to D.C. in connection with the January 6 events,” IG Horowitz wrote.

In addition, IG Horowitz’s response failed to adequately address whether DOJ components had employees or contractors wearing civilian clothing in the Washington, D.C. area and around the Capitol Building on J6.

“We also reiterate other requests from our December 16, 2024, letter that are still outstanding,” the senators wrote.  

“For example, in our letter we asked whether your office obtained, during the course of its investigation into this matter, all communications, including text messages, between and among all DOJ component agency handlers and the CHSs/undercover agents. Your April 7, 2025, response confirmed that your office ‘did not request all of the text messages for all of the 26 CHSs and their handlers.’ Your April 7, 2025, response also noted that your office obtained classified communications; however, it failed to answer whether it obtained all classified communications,” the senators added.

Read more about the letter on Fox News.

Full text of the letter can be found here.

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