GOP's J6 Probe Reveals Massive Security Lapses at Capitol
When Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic cohorts decided to kick a number of Republicans off of their Trump-focused January 6th select committee, they opened themselves up for some real trouble to come their way.
Now, with those would-be committee members forming their own probe and releasing their own report on the events of that fateful day, the nation is left with more questions than answers.
The five Republicans initially set to serve on the January 6 select committee released a report Wednesday of findings from their investigation into the U.S. Capitol’s security preparedness ahead of the 2021 riot.
Advertisement - story continues belowThe Republicans’ 141-page report explores at length the security measures taken leading up to the events of January 6, 2021, an issue they say the January 6 committee has “thus far ignored.”
The report serves as a counter document to the select committee’s anticipated behemoth conclusive report, which is expected to come this week after the committee held a final public meeting Monday summarizing its investigation and announcing criminal and ethics referrals.
Just how bad was the situation?
“Leadership and law enforcement failures within the U.S. Capitol left the complex vulnerable on January 6, 2021,” the GOP report states. “The Democrat-led investigation in the House of Representative, however, has disregarded those institutional failings that exposed the Capitol to violence that day.”
It gets worse:
The report details how U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) had “sufficient information from an array of channels to anticipate and prepare for the violence that occurred.”
“However, officers on the front lines and analysts in USCP’s intelligence division were undermined by the misplaced priorities of their leadership,” the report states. “Those problems were exacerbated by the House Sergeant at Arms, who was distracted from giving full attention to the threat environment prior to January 6, 2021 by several other upcoming events.”
The Republicans’ report also demonstrates coordination between then-Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Pelosi’s office in the leadup to the riot, making the case that Irving, a member of the USCP board, shut Republicans out of critical conversations and “succumbed to political pressures” from Pelosi and Democrat leadership.
“In one case, Irving even asked a senior Democratic staffer to ‘act surprised’ when he sent key information about plans for the Joint Session on January 6, 2021 to him and his Republican counterpart,” the report found. “The senior Democratic staffer replied: ‘I’m startled!’”
Democrats have repeatedly pushed back on the assertion that the Capitol’s security was inadequate despite the clear warnings given to federal law enforcement, but this report appears to have nullified their protestations completely.
