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.
Subscribe to 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.
-
Big, beautiful bill: Supercharging ICE
Feature With billions in new funding, ICE is set to expand its force of agents and build detention camps capable of holding more than 100,000 people
-
Deportations: Citizens could be next
Feature the Trump is expanding denaturalization efforts, targeting naturalized citizens and birthright citizenship
-
Ukraine: Trump's mixed messages
Feature Trump reverses a Pentagon freeze on Patriot missiles to Ukraine as Russia ramps up air attacks
-
Supreme Court: Ceding more power to Trump?
Feature SCOTUS has given Trump a victory by ending nationwide injunctions, limiting judges' power to block presidential orders
-
The Pam Bondi and Dan Bongino schism threatens Trump's DOJ
In the Spotlight Two MAGA partisans find themselves on either end of a growing scandal over Jeffrey Epstein and his ties to White House officials
-
Secret Service 'failures' on Trump shooting
Speed Read Two new reports detail security breakdowns that led to attempts on the president's life
-
Trump uses tariffs to upend Brazil's domestic politics
IN THE SPOTLIGHT By slapping a 50% tariff on Brazil for its criminal investigation into Bolsonaro, the Trump administration is brazenly putting its fingers on the scales of a key foreign election
-
'Trump's authoritarian manipulation of language'
Instant Opinion Vienna has become a 'convenient target for populists' | Opinion, comment and editorials of the day