As a former president offered a sophisticated response to a direct question “It depends on what the meaning of “is” is.”
Today it all depends on what the meaning of “agent” is.
If one relies on the legal definition, it simply means one who does the bidding of a principal. For instance the Merriam Webster Dictionary — https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agent — includes this relevant definition under section 4:b
: one engaged in undercover activities (such as espionage) : spy
a secret agent
Now comes the Inspector General of the FBI, one Michael Horowitz, who appears to claim that to be an “agent” of the FBI, one must carry a badge.
We say that John Huston’s famous scene in “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” is more accurate, where the leader of the bandits responds to Humphrey Bogart’s question:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ
Credible reports indicate that there were some 26 unbadged FBI “agents” on the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021, and video clips appear to show that some of them urged the assembled multitude to break into the Capitol building.
Harking back to the original “gate” scandal, Watergate in 1972, the ultimate crime was not the break-in itself but the cover-up.
If that’s the precedent, and the “rule” of law, then Capitol-gate should draw our focus to the attempted cover-up by FBI-IG Horowitz and his “clients” James Comey and others at the top of the FBI management.
For now, we’ll leave the investigations and prosecution to the incoming Department of Justice and FBI heads Bondi and Patel, as well as the relevant committees of the Senate and House of Representatives.
But we’ll still award the Molière Citation today to Former FBI Director James Comey and IG Michael Horowitz, with to-be-named co-defendants pending further disclosures.
BTW, we’re not holding our collective breaths waiting to find out whether the Biden “blanket pardon” program will include these two (or whether they would have the temerity to reject a pardon if so offered).