The Jan. 6 'plot' that wasn't


The FBI has found "scant" evidence the Jan. 6 insurrection was the result of an organized plot, Reuters reported on Friday.
"Ninety to ninety-five percent of these are one-off cases," an anonymous former official said of the nearly 600 people who have been arrested for their involvement in the attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. "Then you have five percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages."
If true, that doesn't mean the events of Jan. 6 weren't dangerous, both to members of Congress and to the health of American democracy. What it does suggest is that the narrative of what happened that day is pretty straightforward and that it played out very publicly: Then-President Donald Trump lied for two months that the election had been stolen from him, a lot of people believed his lies, and then they (violently) acted accordingly.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
There didn't need to be a secret conspiracy. Instead, it sounds more like self-radicalization as a mass phenomenon.
The term "self-radicalization" has been used in recent years to describe the underlying causes of lone-wolf terror attacks like the gunman who killed 49 people at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, or the Pensacola shooter who killed three at the Naval Air Station in 2019. Dylann Roof, who killed nine parishioners at a Charleston, S.C. church, was also described in such terms. In these cases, the phrase roughly describes individuals who were motivated to violence after seeking out and absorbing radical ideologies over the Internet and through social media. What is Jan. 6, if not a similar phenomenon — after a pandemic year in which millions of people had increasingly turned to the Internet for community and consolation — only with all the wolves gathered in a single, very important location for the same purpose?
None of this gets Trump off the hook, of course. Despite what the term suggests, self-radicalizers never truly act on their own. They need inspiration. The people who came to Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 did so at Trump's invitation, and then marched to the Capitol at his behest. He didn't have to plot with anybody — he just had to rile up his followers, then point them in the right direction.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Joel Mathis is a writer with 30 years of newspaper and online journalism experience. His work also regularly appears in National Geographic and The Kansas City Star. His awards include best online commentary at the Online News Association and (twice) at the City and Regional Magazine Association.
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Sudoku hard: October 5, 2025
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
‘This isn’t just semantics’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Miami Freedom Tower’s MAGA library squeeze
THE EXPLAINER Plans to place Donald Trump’s presidential library next to an iconic symbol of Florida’s Cuban immigrant community has South Florida divided
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsion
Speed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot