Nearly four years ago, a political gathering turned into an out-of-control mob of people who followed the urging of activists to “go into the Capitol.” Political bias on the January 6 Select Committee kept the truth from getting to American citizens.
Now, we are learning that the Pentagon got involved in politics, something that the military usually tries to avoid. In an article written by Joseph M. Hanneman and Steve Baker and published at The Blaze, we learn the following:
The Pentagon dismissed an order from
President Donald J. Trump to use the National Guard to ensure safety on Jan. 6,
intentionally delayed Guard deployment for hours, lied about it to congressional
leaders, and used its own inspector general to cover it all up, a U.S. House
report concludes.
The
Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight investigated the
matter for two years. Their recent report “put the blame for failure to get
National Guard troops to the U.S. Capitol on former Army Secretary Ryan
McCarthy, two Pentagon Army generals, and Acting Defense Secretary Chris
Miller.”
“Over the past 24 months of this
investigation, my subcommittee staff have faced incredible obstacles in pursuit
of the truth; missing and deleted documents, hidden evidence, unaccounted-for
video footage, and uncooperative bureaucrats,” said U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk
(R-Ga.), chairman of the subcommittee….
“This report reveals that there was not
just one single cause for what happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6; but
it was a series of intelligence, security, and leadership failures at several
levels and numerous entities,” Loudermilk wrote in the report, set for release
on Dec. 17.
“Even amid multiple failures, there were
two common elements that significantly contributed to the security issues: an
excessive amount of political influence on critical decisions, and a greater
concern over the optics than for protecting life and property,” Loudermilk
wrote.
The Pentagon failures were covered up and
made worse by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, which
issued a report “that contains fabricated information, ignores crucial
information, fails to interview key individuals, and appears to have
collaborated with DoD to portray a false narrative,” the report said.
The Loudermilk report was ostensibly meant
to investigate the failures and politicization of the now-defunct Jan. 6 Select
Committee, but it spent most of its pages on efforts to stymie getting the National
Guard to the Capitol after desperate calls for help from Capitol Police Chief
Steven Sund.
Officials in the highest levels of the
Pentagon blamed the massive security failure at the Capitol on the District of
Columbia National Guard rather than owning up to their own efforts to sabotage
making the Guard available to quell rioting, the report said.
“The events of January 6, 2021, were
preventable,” Loudermilk wrote.
“For nearly four years, Democrats pushed
the narrative that President Trump was solely responsible for the riot at the Capitol
– spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a politically motivated witch hunt
while failing to legitimately examine how United States Capitol leadership was
unable to ensure adequate protection for Members of Congress and thousands of
congressional staff.
‘These actions taken by Pentagon leadership
led to the DoD’s paralysis in response to the riot at the U.S. Capitol.’
“Incredibly, it would take nearly four years
for video footage to emerge of Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi – in a rare moment of
true leadership – admitting that she was fully responsible for the security
failures that day,” Loudermilk said.
The report suggests that the two top
members of the select committee – U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and
former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) – should be investigated for allegedly
destroying investigative documents and possibly suborning perjury from Cassidy
Hutchinson, a key anti-Trump witness who testified before the select committee.
Cheney likely broke “numerous federal laws” and “should be investigated by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report said.
The report makes six key findings on the
National Guard issue that primarily implicate McCarthy for undermining efforts
to move a Guard quick-reaction force from a nearby staging area to the Capitol,
forcing Sund to call in 1,700 law enforcement officers from around the National
Capital Region to retake the Capitol grounds.
The first key finding concerns Secretary
McCarthy.
The Loudermilk report and the article at The Blaze put the blame for
having no National Guard troops squarely on McCarthy. “Secretary McCarthy ‘intentionally
delayed’ the Guard response that had been approved at 3:04 p.m. by acting
Secretary Miller.” The Secretary “then lied to Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer
(D-N.Y.), and other congressional leaders” when “he told them that the National
Guard troops were ‘physically moving to the Capitol’ when he ‘knew these forces
had yet to receive any orders,’ the report said.”
The second key finding concerns both
McCarthy and Miller
who “both placed unusual restrictions on the D.C. National Guard in memos
issued on Jan. 4 and 5, the report said.” The two men did not want the National
Guard to be armed: “The memos withheld authority for the DCNG to be ‘issued
weapons, ammunition, bayonets, and batons’ and ‘interact physically with
protesters.’” McCarthy went further with his restrictions. He required a “concept
of operations plan” to be submitted before he would give authority to the “use
of a 40-man Quick Reaction Force.”
The report claimed, “These actions taken
by Pentagon leadership led to the DoD’s paralysis in response to the riot at
the U.S. Capitol.”
The report continued, “The Subcommittee
concludes that these explicit control measures on the National Guard stem from
both ill-advised, poor judgement by the Acting Secretary of Defense and the
Secretary of the Army, and DoD leadership’s intent to prevent or limit the
National Guard’s ability to act on January 6.”
The third key finding involves Chief Sund
and Secretary McCarthy. Sund sent an “urgent request” for help from the
National Guard in “a conference call with the Pentagon at 2:30 p.m.” to request
immediate support from the DCNG. However, McCarthy “declined to make himself
available for the call,” even though his “permission was expressly required.”
Those participating in the conference call were shocked to hear two senior
staff generals deny the request for support because of “optics.”
The fourth key finding involves Miller and
Sund. Miller
approved “Sund’s request for assistance at 3:04 p.m. and communicated the
approval to McCarthy, the report said.” However, “McCarthy failed to tell Maj.
Gen. William J. Walker, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, who didn’t
receive the approval to act until after 5:00 p.m.”
Even though McCarthy claims to have called
Walker at 3:05 p.m., “Walker ‘has consistently denied that he received any
communication from Secretary McCarthy or his staff at any point on January 6,
2021, as he was waiting for authorization to deploy his forces to the Capitol,’
the report said.” The report continued, “This failure to communicate the order
in a timely manner has never been addressed by either DoD or oversight bodies,
including the Select Committee.”
The fifth key finding involves a call at
3:18 p.m. between
McCarthy, Pelosi, Schumer, and other key lawmakers who were trying to “impress
upon him the urgency of the situation at the Capitol.” McCarthy told them that
he was waiting to get permission from his boss, that he had permission, and
that the National Guard was moving. “The truth was that the D.C. Guard was not
moving and had not been ordered to the Capitol despite Secretary Miller’s 3:04
p.m. approval.”
“The most troubling aspect of these misleading
statements is that congressional leaders made decisions affecting the security
of Members of Congress and their staff, based on the information that the DCNG
was en route to the Capitol at 3:18 p.m.,” the report said….
“To date, no investigation or disciplinary
action has taken place against Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy for
deceiving congressional leadership with false statements regarding the delay in
deployment of the D.C. National Guard to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,”
the report said.
The
article then went to the obstruction of the inspector general. In his report of
the riot, the “Department of Defense Office of Inspector General issued a 2021
report that ‘knowingly and inaccurately placed blame on D.C. National Guard
leadership,’ the report said.” Then the OIG obstructed the House subcommittee’s
work of investigation.
The OIG at times obstructed the work of
the subcommittee, which detected an “inappropriately close relationship between
the DoD Inspector General and DoD, which compromises the Inspector General’s
ability to conduct objective oversight.
The OIG interviewed 43 witnesses in the
creation of its Jan. 6 report but “failed to interview key personnel from the
DCNG who were heavily involved” in Jan. 6 planning, the report said. The OIG
report made “alarming accusations” that Gen. Walker lied in his testimony
during a March 2021 Senate hearing.
“Major General Walker’s testimony revealed
information that is not favorable to Army staff and senior Pentagon officials,
and thus DoD IG constructed their report to deliberately undermine the DCNG
Commander’s sworn testimony,” the report said.
Loudermilk
and his subcommittee were assisted by four National Guard whistleblowers who
testified at a hearing in April 2024. The whistleblowers “called out the
Department of Defense OIG Jan. 6 report as being riddled with falsehoods.”
“As an oversight entity, the Subcommittee
is simply highlighting the lack of independent and rigorous analysis by the Dod
IG in their failure to interview the D.C. National Guard witnesses who have
maintained a different account of DoD events on January 6, 2021,” the report
said.
President
Joe Biden has not fired any individual despite the many failings of his
administration. No one was fired for the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan.
No one was fired for the United States’ part in the disastrous war in Ukraine.
I do not hold much hope for Secretary McCarthy even receiving a reprimand from
Biden for his lies and unworthy behavior. However, I expect some thorough
housecleaning to be done by Donald Trump, starting on January 20, 2025. I would
not be the least bit surprised to learn that Trump requested resignation letters
from many of the people in government and military to be on his desk when he
gets to the White House after his inauguration.
