The agencies had earlier claimed that they had no knowledge of the impending riots
NBC television reported on Sunday, citing an FBI source, that officers from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the New York Police Department had warned Capitol Police leadership about impending riots during protests by supporters of Republican American President Donald Trump’s incumbent.
“FBI officials were previously able to obtain credible and actionable information about people who were planning to head to the protests and expressing their willingness to participate in the riots. The FBI was able to dissuade these people from travelling to Washington”, – the source stressed.
According to it, the FBI has provided information about the riots to its federal partners and local authorities.
In addition to the FBI, information about the impending riots was available to the New York Police Department, which, according to NBC, has the greatest ability to collect and process data compared to police departments in other American cities. NBC sources emphasise that for the past few weeks, police executives in America’s largest metropolis had alerted law enforcement across the country, including the Capitol Police, that participants in the planned protests were using extremist rhetoric and making threats of violence. Earlier, the FBI and Capitol Police had indicated that they had no knowledge of the planned unrest.