Former federal prosecutor says Jan. 6 led to FBI increasing surveillance of American public

Journalist and former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori on Wednesday contended that the events of January 6 have led to the increased surveillance of the American public from the FBI.

Khardori told Hill.TV that “consequential” events like the January 6 uprising usually lead to a strong reaction from law enforcement agencies and the government.

The contributing editor to Politico also faulted the FBI for failing to prevent pro-Donald Trump supporters from storming the capitol to overturn certification of the 2020 election.

“I think there’s a lot of questions about the FBI’s own conduct that I’d like to see answered before they go around gathering all sorts of additional information,” he said. “While it may be legal, justifiably it raises a lot of concerns among privacy advocates.”

The FBI was criticized for failing to heed warning signs on social media that Trump supporters were cooking up a January 6 insurrection.

The agency was reported to have defended its actions in November, with a number of agents saying many of the warning signs online were protected free speech and “aspirational” in nature.

Khardori compared the recent events to 9/11, when there was a failure to prevent the catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

The tragedy led to significant changes in the U.S., including increased data collection from federal authorities like the National Security Agency.

Khardori said federal agencies are repeating mistakes, likely because of little oversight from congressional lawmakers.

“This is not an unusual pattern,” he said. “The real long-term problem here has been one of oversight in the Congress.”

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