NEW ORLEANS — On Wednesday, lawmakers in Congress called for clarity regarding the FBI’s actions following the truck attack in New Orleans on January 1, which resulted in the deaths of 14 individuals. The inquiry raised questions about the absence of the bureau’s key local official during the incident and voiced concerns about the FBI’s initial mischaracterization of the attack as “not a terrorist event.”
In letters sent out, Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Ron Johnson, leading the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, also pointed to Facebook’s potential oversights concerning warning signs. They urged the social media giant to provide a detailed timeline of when it learned about threatening videos posted by Shamsud-Din Jabbar prior to the tragic event, where he drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year’s.
Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran hailing from Texas, expressed his support for the Islamic State group in a series of social media posts made between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m., just minutes before the incident commenced at 3:15 a.m., as reported by federal authorities. Police fatally shot Jabbar on the scene during an exchange of fire following the attack on Bourbon Street, a popular tourist destination in the historic French Quarter. Investigators are currently exploring Jabbar’s connections but believe he acted independently.
The heightened scrutiny from congressional leaders is taking place amid ongoing city and state investigations into possible security failures and the law enforcement response. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, along with Wisconsin’s Johnson, expressed their commitment to ensure thorough and unbiased oversight concerning the incident.
The senators also examined the FBI’s readiness leading up to significant public events like the Sugar Bowl and criticized an initial communications misstep from the bureau, which confused the public given that the act was clearly an act of terrorism. During the investigation, authorities recovered an Islamic State flag from Jabbar’s rental vehicle.
Notably, as the attack unfolded, Lyonel Myrthil, who leads the FBI’s New Orleans field office, was vacationing in Europe and only returned to the city days later, as mentioned in the lawmakers’ writings, which included references from whistleblower accounts. They highlighted that such critical events merit the presence of a special agent in charge and criticized the FBI for not addressing Myrthil’s absence in briefings to Congress.
The lawmakers asserted that the citizens of New Orleans deserve full transparency regarding the terrorist attack. Although the FBI acknowledged Myrthil’s overseas vacation, they noted he made efforts to arrange an earlier return as well as participate in investigative discussions while traveling back on January 2. The bureau emphasized that Deputy Director Paul Abbate was not fully informed about Myrthil’s absence but quickly deployed a senior counterterrorism official soon after the event.
The FBI’s statement indicated that Myrthil’s absence did not hinder the promptness of their resources and personnel responses. Meanwhile, Alethea Duncan, the FBI official who misclassified the incident, had been covering for Myrthil and was reportedly reassigned, although the bureau did not clarify her current status.
Legislators have also sought to uncover when Meta became aware of Jabbar’s recordings made with their smart glasses, which he used to survey the French Quarter months prior to the attack. They pressed Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to divulge any instances of Jabbar’s posts being flagged or removed by the platform. Additionally, they inquired about whether Jabbar employed other accounts or engaged with users on social media. Grassley and Johnson noted that other mass shooters in the U.S. had previously shown warning signs on social media.
