Parler says it sent the F.B.I. posts about threats to the Capitol ahead of Jan. 6.
By Katie Benner
March 25, 2021
Parler, the social network popular with Trump supporters, said on Thursday that it had been working with law enforcement for months to identify possible illegal activity, including notifying authorities of specific threats to the Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6 assault on Congress. Parler said in a letter to Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and chair of the House Oversight Committee, that it formalized its relationship with the F.B.I. in November “to facilitate proactive cooperation and referrals of violent threats and incitement to law enforcement.”
The company said that it sent the bureau dozens of concerning posts written by its users, including some related to the deadly Jan. 6 attack. “In the days and weeks leading up to Jan. 6, Parler referred violent content from its platform to the F.B.I. for investigation over 50 times,” the company said in its letter. “Parler even alerted law enforcement to specific threats of violence being planned at the Capitol.”
The letter raises fresh questions about whether the F.B.I. took seriously enough threats of violence made ahead of Jan. 6, when Congress formally certified the Electoral College after President Donald J. Trump had spent weeks spreading baseless claims about election irregularities.
The F.B.I. declined to comment on the letter or on what it has done with any information it has received from Parler. Four days before the riot, the company said it gave the F.B.I. posts made by a user who said that he would attend the Jan 6 rally in body armor because “it’s no longer a protest.” “This is the final stand where we are drawing the red line at Capitol Hill,” according to quotes from his messages that Parler shared with Congress.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/us/parler-fbi-capitol-attack.html
There is a copy of the letter that was sent to the House Oversight Committee here (PDF) -
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A18b6cc84-03e0-4d84-9536-917fd7acfa12#pageNum=1
I expect the House Oversight Committee had already turned over whatever they had to the January 6 Select Committee.
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