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The FBI is look­ing into whether extrem­ists who planned and exe­cut­ed the Jan. 6 attack on the Capi­tol were fund­ed by for­eign orga­ni­za­tions, indi­vid­u­als, and gov­ern­ments, includ­ing exam­in­ing pay­ments of $500,000 from a French nation­al to key groups and fig­ures before the riot­ing, accord­ing to a for­mer FBI official. 

The pay­ments, made in Bit­coin, were doc­u­ment­ed by a com­pa­ny that ana­lyzes trans­fers of cryp­tocur­ren­cy, reports NBC News. Such pay­ments are doc­u­ment­ed through a pub­lic ledger, allow­ing them to be traced.

In addi­tion, the FBI, Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty, and oth­er agen­cies have report­ed, since the riot, actors influ­enced by Rus­sia, Chi­na, and Iran have “seized the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ampli­fy nar­ra­tives in fur­ther­ance of their pol­i­cy inter­est amid the pres­i­den­tial transition.”