Recently released Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Police security video shows a suspected FBI special agent clapping and cheering as crowds surged up steps to the Columbus Doors and another meeting with an FBI tactical team just before it entered the Capitol after the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt.
The videos were first identified by defendant William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, in court filings in his own Jan. 6 criminal case. Exhibits Mr. Pope originally filed under seal have become public since the release of thousands of hours of Jan. 6 security video by the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.
Two possible FBI special agents and a third unknown colleague were with John D. Guandolo, the FBI’s former liaison with U.S. Capitol Police, at the Women for a Great America event on the East Front of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Mr. Pope.
In sworn testimony in a December 2022 Alaska civil court trial and in numerous media appearances, Mr. Guandolo said he was with two FBI special agents and a colleague with whom he traveled to Washington on Jan. 6. Mr. Guandolo has indicated that he was also introduced to other FBI personnel at the Capitol that day.
Mr. Pope is seeking to compel federal prosecutors to identify them all. He said even if the men were at the Capitol on personal time, their free movement around the grounds shows they did not believe the Capitol was off limits to the public.
Mr. Guandolo, who handled counterterrorism and criminal investigations for nearly 13 years—from 1996 to 2008—as an FBI special agent, has said he was at the Capitol in a personal capacity and went primarily to pray.
He was interviewed by the FBI about his Jan. 6 visit on July 6, 2022. A heavily redacted copy of the FBI 302 interview summary has been made public.
‘This Is Huge’
Security video shows that as the crowd broke through the police line on the East Plaza and surged up the steps to the Columbus Doors, one of Mr. Guandolo’s colleagues clapped enthusiastically.
“Oh, oh, oh man, this is huge,” the man said, heard on Mr. Guandolo’s cell phone video that showed the crowd ascending the east steps.
On Capitol Police security Camera 7231, which looks out at the House Egg on the East Front, Mr. Guandolo was seen filming while standing on a chair just before 2:05 p.m. The clapping man, wearing a grey knit cap and dark coat, is identified in Mr. Pope’s court filing as “the Clapper” and “Colleague 2.”
While Colleague 2 cheered the protesters’ advance on the Capitol, a man on Mr. Guandolo’s left, “Colleague 1,” had his phone raised, presumably capturing his own video of the advancing crowd. He wore a brown knit cap and blue jacket, and carried a backpack, video showed.
Mr. Pope asked U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras to compel the Department of Justice to identify all FBI agents “who were material witnesses at the Capitol.” Mr. Pope wants the FBI “to produce all photographs, videos, and records related to their presence.”
The DOJ has filed opposition to Mr. Pope’s motion, saying it has “no obligation to investigate” who the men in the videos are.
Some of the exhibits in Mr. Pope’s Feb. 12 motion were redacted, but the recent release of thousands of hours of Jan. 6 security video by the Subcommittee on Oversight allows them to be released publicly, Mr. Pope said.
Capitol Police security video shows Mr. Guandolo, Colleague 1, and Colleague 2—often trailed by a third unidentified man, “Colleague 3”—moving about the Capitol grounds.
“For the record, my friend and colleague with me for most of the day on January 6th was not working,“ Mr. Guandolo told The Epoch Times in an April 2 email. ”He was there with his family to experience the event like most of us.”
Subsequently asked to clarify which of the men shown on CCTV he was referring to, Mr. Guandolo did not reply before press time.
“The other FBI guys I saw there I cannot speak about their capacity that day,” Mr. Guandolo added.
Mr. Guandolo said he testified for the defense in the criminal trial of Jan. 6 defendant Rebecca Lavrenz on March 29 and has been “asked to testify in several upcoming cases.”
Mr. Guandolo said his statements about Jan. 6 have been “very public and very clear.”
“There was an insurrection and revolution, and it was not done by the participants of January 6th but by senior government officials of the U.S. government,” he said.
‘Right to Be There’
The video from Mr. Guandolo and security cameras “also indicates that active-duty FBI agents perceived events at the Capitol to not be criminal,” Mr. Pope wrote in his motion. “From the clapping and celebratory expression we can conclude that these FBI agents were in favor of people accessing the building and that they believed the people had a First Amendment right to be there.”
At 2:28 p.m., Camera 7202 captured footage of Colleague 2 walking across the East Plaza and climbing the House steps. He stopped to shoot video or photos just a few feet from a group of Capitol Police officers, the video showed.
He appeared to be filming or photographing a group of five—two young men and three young women or teens—standing about a dozen steps above him. The five then descended the stairs and walked off camera with Colleague 2.
The group of five young adults was also seen walking immediately in front of Mr. Guandolo and his three colleagues on the House Plaza Egress—Camera 0811—at 2:55 p.m. and on Camera 0681 on the Southwest Walk at 2:57 p.m., video shows. One of the young adults carried on a conversation with Colleague 2 during part of the walk.
“Since this FBI Agent has professional law enforcement training, and since he found it permissible to walk up on the steps while three Capitol Police officers looked on nearby ... it is reasonable for me to conclude that this FBI agent will provide favorable testimony about the permissive actions of police that is likely to sway a jury away from a determination of guilt,” Mr. Pope wrote.
At 2:32 p.m., an FBI tactical team drove onto the East Plaza in an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle. After the dark green vehicle was parked, Colleague 1 came from the area of the Women for a Great America event, walked around the front of the vehicle and spoke to someone inside the front passenger door for approximately five minutes, video showed.
“This could indicate that FBI Colleague 1 was indeed on the clock at the Capitol on January 6, or that the uniformed FBI SWAT team did not consider the events at the Capitol to be a pressing matter and that they had time to shoot the breeze with an off-duty FBI colleague,” Mr. Pope wrote.
Members of the FBI SWAT team were seen on security video entering the South Door of the Capitol just before 2:50 p.m. They immediately turned right down a side hallway and helped Capitol Police carry a mortally wounded Ms. Babbitt, who'd been shot outside the Speaker’s Lobby minutes earlier.
Ms. Babbitt was set on the floor near the south entrance and emergency care was provided by FBI medics and Capitol Police until paramedics from the District of Columbia Fire and EMS Department took over.
At about 2:55 p.m. Camera 0948 on the southeast roof of the Capitol showed Mr. Guandolo and his three colleagues walking away from the east steps. Camera 0811 on the House Plaza Egress sidewalk showed the men walking past just before 2:56 pm. Mr. Guandolo looked to his right and appeared to be speaking to someone just before he disappeared from view, Mr. Pope wrote.
A few seconds later, a man known only by the hashtag #FenceCutterBulwark walked into view from the opposite direction. The identity of #FenceCutterBulwark has been a longstanding mystery after he was shown on public video cutting down the green plastic security fencing erected by Capitol Police to keep crowds away from the Capitol.
Mr. Guandolo told The Epoch Times, “I do not know #FenceCutterBulwark.”
While he was carrying out his fence destruction, #FenceCutterBulwark was filmed by Metropolitan Police Department undercover officer Ryan Roe, who said to him, “Appreciate it, brother.”
A man claiming to be #FenceCutterBulwark appeared on the Patriot Punk Network podcast in September 2023, saying he was not a provocateur or a federal informant, and did not know Officer Roe.
“If he said, ‘Thanks, brother,’ then our, I’m assuming our exchange would have been, you know, me just basically saying, ‘Hey, I’m just trying to get this out of the way. It’s a hazard. It’s dangerous, or whatever. I don’t want people getting hurt,’” the man told Patriot Punk host Chase Matheson.
Mr. Pope has petitioned Judge Contreras to order the release of video shot by all members of the Metropolitan Police Department Electronic Surveillance Unit (MPD ESU) who captured video on Jan. 6 using cell phones, camcorders and GoPro cameras.
Nearly 30 ESU officers were assigned for duty on Jan. 6, organized into eight teams. Some of the men used their phones to live stream to the MPD command center, according to court records.
One of the undercover officers allegedly acted as a provocateur in the crowd on the Northwest Steps, according to previous court filings by Mr. Pope.
Officer Nicholas Tomasula confirmed in an interview with defense attorneys in the Proud Boys case that he was heard on Jan. 6 video chanting, “Whose House? Our House!” and “Stop the Steal!”
Mr. Tomasula was identified as “Officer 1” in Mr. Pope’s February 2023 motion seeking to make Officer 1’s undercover video public.
At the foot of the Northwest Steps, as a protester climbed up a makeshift ladder onto the balustrade, Mr. Tomasula shouted: “C’mon, man, let’s go! Leave that [expletive],” his video showed. Mr. Tomasula got help from a protester climbing onto the balustrade, then shouted to protesters moving up the steps, “C’mon, go, go, go!”
Mr. Pope said that Mr. Tomasula was not alone in encouraging protesters on Jan. 6.
“MPD’s internal investigation on Tomasula and my own research has identified that other undercover MPD officers were, in real time, praising protesters who broke windows at the Capitol and thanking persons who removed fencing,” he wrote in a motion on Aug. 21, 2023.
Mr. Guandolo and his three colleagues were seen on two security cameras on the southwest drive, passing by at 2:57 p.m.
“It is significant that there were several agents present. The testimony of these FBI agents who believed it was acceptable to be in this alleged restricted area will weigh favorably on the minds of the jury against any contrary testimony brought by the government,” Mr. Pope wrote.
“For this reason, the court should compel the government to identify all FBI agents who directly witnessed events at the Capitol since the exculpatory testimony of many, many agents will lend strength in numbers to my defense.”
