SO MANY RED FLAGS

Even a Private AI Company Warned Capitol Police Ahead of Jan. 6 Riot

Newly unearthed emails show that the company, Dataminr, approached police on Jan. 5, warning them about social media posts threatening an attack.

Capitol Police received warnings on Jan. 5 about social media posts discussing an attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to emails obtained by CNN. The warnings came from a rep for artificial intelligence company Dataminr, who said they had detected a number of troubling posts, including one on internet message board 8kun, which said “we will storm government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents.” Hours later, the same Dataminr rep got back in touch with Capitol Police to flag comments on Parler about storming the Capitol. However, internal communications indicate that Capitol Police didn’t consider the threats credible. According to one Senate source, after months of investigation, they are “stunned” at the way that Capitol Police ignored warning signs about the Jan. 6 insurrection. The heads of other law enforcement agencies have all blamed each other for dropping the ball.