Senate report on January 6 coup attempt

A bipartisan probe led by two Senate committees has found that U.S. Capitol Police and other authorities were in possession of more alarming intelligence clues ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the complex than previously documented.

The findings are part of a report issued Tuesday by the Senate Rules and Homeland Security committees looking into the series of failures of intelligence, security preparations and emergency response before and during the insurrection.

Among new public details, the panels say Capitol Police had seen information from a pro-Trump website that included comments about the Capitol's tunnel system and that encouraged demonstrators to bring weapons to subdue members of Congress and police and reverse the presidential election's results.

"This is do or die. Bring your guns," one comment read in part, the report said.

The website also had comments that demonstrators should surround every building with a tunnel entrance or exit, be prepared to drag down police, and that they could "enter the Capitol as the Third Continental Congress and certify the Trump Electors," referring to an alliance of militia groups.

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The committees' report includes 20 recommendations, such as a review of intelligence handling and for law enforcement agencies to conduct joint training exercises regarding threats in the Washington, D.C., area. Another recommendation could lead to legislation to allow the Capitol Police chief to unilaterally call for emergency backup without approval from a board that oversees the agency.

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However, the report also faced its own set of challenges. It was limited in scope to security preparations and response, so it did not delve into the motivations of the attackers or examine participants at the rally that preceded it, including former President Donald Trump.

Also, some agencies such as the Justice and Homeland Security departments provided only partial responses during the probe.

  NPR

AG Merrick Garland needs to appoint a special counsel for that purpose. And not Robert Mueller.

Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [...] noted they had raised concerns. For example, Miller and Milley asked if permits for the 1,000 to 2,000 demonstrators that day could be revoked ahead of the rally and asked if the district could be locked down, the joint report said.

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Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman and Architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton also sat down with committee officials for private interviews.

The report noted that Pittman at times contradicted herself as she described the agency's preparations for the day of the attack.

And it highlighted comments from Blanton, who expressed concern with the "over-classification" of information with Capitol Police and the board he sits on that oversees the agency. Blanton was not consulted ahead of Jan. 6 on whether the board should approve a need for backup ahead of time, a request that was made informally by the acting chief but failed to get the green light from the top security officials in the House and Senate.

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This comes after the House passed its own $1.9 billion plan to bolster security at the Capitol, and reform its police agency, but it has yet to get picked up in the Senate.

I wonder what they're waiting for.

[The report] includes new details about the police officers on the front lines who suffered chemical burns, brain injuries and broken bones and who told senators that they were left with no direction when command systems broke down. It recommends immediate changes to give the Capitol police chief more authority, to provide better planning and equipment for law enforcement and to streamline intelligence-gathering among federal agencies.

  Guardian

I thought the 9/11 report was supposed to have led to streamlined intelligence-gathering among federal agencies.

The Senate report recounts how the guard was delayed for hours on 6 January as officials in multiple agencies took bureaucratic steps to release the troops. It details hours of calls between officials in the Capitol and the Pentagon and as the then chief of the Capitol police, Steven Sund, desperately begged for help.

It finds that the Pentagon spent hours “mission planning” and seeking layers of approvals as rioters were overwhelming and brutally beating Capitol police.

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The senators are heavily critical of the Capitol police board, a three-member panel that includes the heads of security for the House and Senate and the architect of the Capitol. The board is now required to approve requests by the police chief, even in urgent situations. The report recommends that its members “regularly review the policies and procedures” after senators found that none of the board members on 6 January understood their own authority or could detail the statutory requirements for requesting National Guard assistance.

How did those people get their jobs?

As a bipartisan effort, the report does not delve into the root causes of the attack, including Trump’s role as he called for his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat that day. It does not call the attack an insurrection, even though it was. And it comes two weeks after Republicans blocked a bipartisan, independent commission that would investigate the insurrection more broadly.

Again, Garland needs to appoint a special counsel for that purpose.

The top Republican on the rules panel, the Missouri senator Roy Blunt, has opposed the commission, arguing that investigation would take too long.

What kind of argument is that? Pure bullshit.

He said the recommendations made in the Senate could be implemented faster, including legislation that he and the Minnesota Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar, the rules committee chair, intend to introduce soon that would give the chief of Capitol police more authority to request assistance from the National Guard.

And they couldn't do that if a commission were formed??? Roy, like almost every other GOP Congressperson, is full of shit.

The report recommends a consolidated intelligence unit within the Capitol police after widespread failures from multiple agencies that did not predict the attack even though insurrectionists were planning it openly on the internet.

Let's add another intelligence unit to the myriad others who don't communicate with each other.

The senators also criticise the FBI and the homeland security department for downplaying online threats and for not issuing formal intelligence bulletins that help law enforcement plan.

And why was that? Perhaps that's a question for an independent counsel.

During the attack, the report says, Capitol police were heavily compromised by multiple failures – bad intelligence, poor planning, faulty equipment and a lack of leadership. The force’s incident command system “broke down during the attack”, leaving officers on the front lines without orders. There were no functional incident commanders, and some senior officers were fighting instead of giving orders.

“I was horrified that no deputy chief or above was on the radio or helping us,” one officer told the committee in an anonymous statement. “For hours the screams on the radio were horrific, the sights were unimaginable and there was a complete loss ofThe committee’s interviews with police officers detail what one officer said was “absolutely brutal” abuse from Trump’s supporters as they ran over them and broke into the building. They described hearing racial slurs and seeing Nazi salutes. One officer trying to evacuate the Senate said he had stopped several men in full tactical gear who said: “You better get out of our way, boy, or we’ll go through you to get [the Senators].’” The insurrectionists told police officers they would kill them, and then the members of Congress. One officer said he had a “tangible fear” that he might not make it home alive. control … For hours no chief or above took command and control. Officers were begging and pleading for help for medical triage.”

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The committee’s interviews with police officers detail what one officer said was “absolutely brutal” abuse from Trump’s supporters as they ran over them and broke into the building. They described hearing racial slurs and seeing Nazi salutes. One officer trying to evacuate the Senate said he had stopped several men in full tactical gear who said: “You better get out of our way, boy, or we’ll go through you to get [the Senators].’”

The insurrectionists told police officers they would kill them, and then the members of Congress. One officer said he had a “tangible fear” that he might not make it home alive.

Next time he might not.

UPDATE: