Former President Donald J. Trump's orders to ensure security during the January 6 protests in Washington, D.C., were ignored by the same senior Pentagon officials who delayed dispatching the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police and calling for National Guard help the same day, according to new transcripts released by a House of Representatives subcommittee.
The trove of documents related to Jan. 6 that were made public Friday corroborate a detailed account of National Guard failures published by The Blaze News on Sept. 19.
Dozens of records have been submitted by individuals to the Select Committee on January 6, the Department of Defense Inspector General and the House Committee on Administration Oversight Subcommittee on January 6 that describe conversations that took place in the White House, the Pentagon, the Capitol Police Command Center and other locations.
“The Department of Defense leadership has prioritized cosmetic concerns over its obligation to protect human lives,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.
“President Trump met with senior Department of Defense officials and directed them to ensure that all events taking place on January 6, 2021 are safe,” Loudermilk said in a statement. “It is deeply troubling that senior Department of Defense officials ignored President Trump's instructions and misled congressional leaders into thinking they were on the job, when in fact they were not.”
The transcript goes to the heart of false reporting sparked by the now-disbanded January 6th Select Committee, which claimed President Trump did nothing to prevent the riots and enable National Guard security at the Capitol on January 6. The transcript also serves as an indictment of the Defense Department inspector general's January 6th report, which senior leaders of the D.C. National Guard have said was riddled with errors and fabrications.
“The Defense Inspector General's report is fundamentally flawed,” Loudermilk said. “It doesn't draw conclusions from the interviews they conducted and it pushes a narrative to keep their hands clean. We have many questions for them, and we intend to continue our investigation until we are satisfied that the American people know the truth.”
This marks the second major revelation by the Oversight Subcommittee about January 6 and the National Guard since a hearing in April in which four Washington, D.C., National Guard whistleblowers testified that the truth of the events of January 6 was covered up and distorted by senior Defense Department officials. It corroborates testimony by U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund before multiple congressional committees over two years.
Sund says the rioting and vandalism that occurred at the Capitol on January 6 could have been entirely avoided if the House and Senate Capitol Guard had not blocked his request to send in the National Guard to the Capitol on January 3. Former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving told the late Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger that he needed to block Sund's request to send in the National Guard because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “would never support it.”
Casey Wardynski, a former assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, said the recording was consistent with his recollection of Jan. 6. Wardynski participated in a video conference with Washington, D.C. National Guard officials and senior Pentagon officials, including Gen. Charles Flynn and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt.
“This fits the image I had of January 6th, which was that people at the Pentagon were more concerned about themselves and their organization than they were about America,” Wardynski told The Blaze News. “If they had just put America first, things would have gone a lot better.”
Loudermilk said the commander of the Washington National Guard, Maj. Gen. William Walker, had unusual restrictions on his troops imposed by then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, and that after McCarthy disappeared on Jan. 6, the Guard was forced to sit on buses several blocks from the Capitol, immobilizing them.
“Walker attempted to call Secretary McCarthy three times between 2:30 and 5 p.m.,” said Brigadier General Aaron Dean of the Washington National Guard. “He said, 'I haven't heard from him all day.' I tried calling his cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail.”
New records show that Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller was among the Pentagon's senior uniformed officials who, at least initially, opposed sending the National Guard to the Capitol.
“There is absolutely no way I would be sending U.S. military forces to the Capitol, period,” Miller said in the transcript.
This sentiment runs directly counter to the instructions President Trump gave during a meeting at the White House on January 3. Gen. Mark Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recalled the conversation:
“The president just says, 'Hey, look at this. There are going to be a lot of protesters here on the 6th. Make sure you have enough National Guard troops and soldiers to make it a safe event,'” Milley said.[POTUS said]”I don't care if we use guards, soldiers, or active duty soldiers. We'll do whatever we have to do. Just make sure they're safe.”
Trump's comments, quoted by some of the military's most vocal critics, blow a new hole in the insurrection theory that has been persistently pushed by the Jan. 6 Select Committee and congressional Democrats. Trump's second impeachment by the House of Representatives and subsequent prosecution by the Department of Justice were based on the theory that he led an insurrection to stop Joe Biden from being sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2021.
“Their desire was not to know the truth.”
Secretary Miller authorized the use of the Washington National Guard and ordered Secretary McCarthy to move troops to the Capitol at 3:04 PM, but McCarthy's orders to Major General Walker were not transmitted until 5:08 PM. By the time the National Guard sent ground forces to the Capitol, it was too late.
Miller testified that McCarthy had all the authority he needed to deploy the National Guard at 3:04 p.m., but that McCarthy first felt he needed to develop his own implementation plan, which he brought back to Miller at approximately 4:30 p.m. on January 6.
By that time, Governor Sund had activated the National Capital Region Mutual Aid System, bringing in 1,700 police officers from as far away as New Jersey. Once the National Guard arrived, police cleared the Capitol and forced the rioters out of the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, effectively ending the January 6 riots.
Wardynski said Miller's comments quoted on the record were surprising, given Miller's book and other public testimony.
“The book said, 'Send up the Guard, send up whoever you need to send up,'” Wardynski said, “and that quote doesn't reflect that perspective at all.”
Col. Earl G. Matthews, who served as Walker's aide on Jan. 6 and testified as a whistleblower at a House hearing in April 2024, said he was pleased that lawmakers have continued to uncover the truth since Jan. 6.
“I really commend Congressman Loudermilk and his team for sticking to the truth and investigating this,” Matthews said. “The Defense Inspector General was not honest. He clearly was not honest. The committee on January 6 was awful. They were not going to get to the truth.”
Matthews filed a whistle-blowing complaint with the Pentagon in 2023 alleging he had been retaliated against for his unkind comments about Flynn and Piatt. According to the complaint, Matthews had been recommended for the rank of brigadier general in the Army Reserves but was denied the promotion because of protected disclosures to Congress.
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