January 6 Fallout

A new report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Sen. Rand Paul, says the FBI spent 23 months investigating Catholic school teacher Christine Crowder and placed her on a terror watchlist based on an unverified tip that she was at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, despite failing to confirm her presence there. The report details how, starting in January 2021, agents expanded the probe after initial negative facial-recognition and geolocation checks, conducting physical surveillance, obtaining a Facebook warrant and preparing a prosecution memo before closing the case in June 2023 after determining Crowder was elsewhere in Washington, D.C. at the time. Paul argues the case exemplifies Biden-era misuse of counterterrorism and flight-watchlist tools, including the now-terminated Quiet Skies program and earlier internal FBI memos targeting some "traditionalist" Catholic churches.