The House Committee’s report on Jan. 6 details unheeded intelligence warnings and other security lapses that allowed a mob of Trump supporters to storm the building.
(Bloomberg) — The House Committee’s report on Jan. 6 details unheeded intelligence warnings and other security lapses that allowed a mob of Trump supporters to storm the building.
Impending violence in the days before the insurrection was — in the words of Gen. Mark Milley — “clear to all.” An advanced threat assessment by Capitol Police on Jan. 3 even warned “Congress itself is a target.”
“Federal and local law enforcement authorities were in possession of multiple streams of intelligence predicting violence directed at the Capitol prior to January 6th,” the report says. “Although some of that intelligence was fragmentary, it should have been sufficient to warrant far more vigorous preparations for the security of the joint session.”
Yet, the security preparations proved insufficient, jeopardizing the lives of police officers defending the Capitol and everyone in it, the report states. And that was compounded by a more than three hours and 19 minutes it took to deploy the Guard to the Capitol once the violence began.
The report does confirm that then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund had in the days prior to the attack called then-House Sgt.-at-Arms Paul Irving to talk about requesting the National Guard to assist in policing the Capitol’s perimeter.
But Sund remembers that Irving responded immediately that he “did not like the optics.” For his part, Irving recalled that Sund said the DC National Guard had offered 125 unarmed Guardsmen to assist the Capitol and Metropolitan Police, but later agreed the DC National Guard would not be necessary, especially if the Capitol Police had an “all hands on deck” posture.
The report also points to former President Donald Trump’s previous eagerness to engage the US military to play a visible role in addressing domestic unrest during the late spring and summer of 2020. That led some military officials to worry whether Trump could misuse forces on Jan. 6, prompting strict guidelines and chain-of-command approval processes that may have helped lead to the Guard’s deployment delay.
“We have no evidence that the delay was intentional. Likewise, it appears that none of the individuals involved understood what President Trump planned for January 6th, and how he would behave during the violence,” the report states.
But perhaps one of its most declarative new findings is an attempt to refute what some Republicans have been suggesting and complaining about — that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was to blame.
Several Republicans released their own report this week highlighting the intelligence warnings, and suggesting the speaker herself helped fumble the response. Although at the time of the attack, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell was in charge of the Senate and shared security responsibilities.
The House committee’s report flat out states that Pelosi — as well as other congressional leaders — played no roles before the attack in blocking the deployment of National Guardsmen to the Capitol for added security.
“The discussions about the use of the Guard remained within the Capitol Police Board and did not reach congressional leadership, including the Speaker of the House,” the report states.
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