Right-wing social media site, Parler, warned the FBI of planned violence up to 50 times, ahead of the January 6 attack.
Parler is a ‘conservative-friendly’ social media site that pro-Trump supporters have been flocking to for its reputation as a “free speech” platform.
It gained a lot of traction in particular last year following a mass boycott from liberal media against Trump, especially after his ban from Twitter.
It has now been revealed that Parler was apparently pretty transparent about the intentions of Trump supporters to raid the Capitol building, but authorities somehow missed the memo.
Democratic chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, Carolyn Maloney, put forward a video to the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday into why the response from Parler was so slow.
Maloney revealed that not only did Parler out their members to the FBI, but they also sent warnings and information more than 50 times.
Obviously, this raised questions about why requests for support from the Capitol police did not go ahead.
“The threats, I would say, were everywhere,” expressed Maloney in the video. “The system was blinking red.”
WRAY: Never heard of it.
MALONEY: Parler contacted you 50 times.
WRAY: Um. I heard there was a Parler that contacted a maybe sorta field office and we’ve been looking at some Parler, um, stuff.
As far as Norfolk goes, it was raw intel, so…
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) June 15, 2021
In particular, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray was challenged over the bureau’s lack of response to multiple intelligence alerts from Parler in the build-up to the riots.
Maloney said that the: “committee has obtained docs showing that… Parler sent the FBI evidence of planned violence in DC on January 6.”
“Parler referred this content to the FBI for the investigation over 50 times.”
However, Wray pleaded ignorant to Parler, stating that his: “understanding is that they sent emails to a particular Field Office, and that some of those contained possible threat information, and some of them were referred to domestic terrorism squads.”
This prompts the obvious question – who within the feds was withholding information about America’s national security?
Parler, the right wing social media platform, emailed the FBI 50 times regarding the threat that January 6 posed, they were ignored! This MUST be investigated, we must find out why these emails never reached Director Wray. Who held them back?
— Curlyque (@curlyquequeque) June 16, 2021
Wray gave a different response to California Congressman, Eric Swalwell on the House floor on June 10, who admitted that the feds were aware of the “chatter” occurring on Parler.
“Certainly we were aware of online chatter about the potential for violence but I’m not aware that we had any intelligence indicating that hundreds of individuals were going to storm the Capitol itself.”
Get it together, Wray.
