WASHINGTON (AP) – Capitol police knew armed extremists had been subjected to violence in the iconic building on Jan. 6 and even provided officers with assault rifles to protect lawmakers, the chief acknowledged Wednesday. in functions. But the savage invasion of the Capitol was far worse than police expected, leaving them unprepared to fight it.
A day earlier, his predecessor as chief stated that police were expecting an angry but more typical protest from supporters of Donald Trump. But acting chief Yogananda Pittman said intelligence gathered before the riot prompted the agency to take extraordinary measures, including special weapons from officers, interception of radio frequencies used by the invaders and deployment. of spies at the Ellipse rally where President Donald Trump sent his supporters marching. at the Capitol to “fight like hell.”
Pittman’s testimony, presented before a hearing in the House on Thursday, provides the most detailed account of the intelligence and preparations of U.S. Capitol police before the insurgency when thousands of pro-Trump riots erupted. the Capitol with the goal of stopping Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election. victory over Trump.
Three days earlier, on January 3, Capitol police distributed an internal intelligence assessment warning that members of the militia, white supremacists and other extremist groups were likely to participate, that protesters would be armed and that it would be possible for them to come to the Capitol to try it. to interrupt the vote, Pittman says.
“Based on the assessment, the Department understood that this demonstration would be different from previous demonstrations conducted by protesters with similar ideologies in November and December 2020,” Pittman says in his prepared statements.
But at the same time, he argues that police did not have enough intelligence to predict the violent insurgency that resulted in five deaths, including that of a Capitol police officer. They prepared for problems, but not for an invasion.
“While the Department’s January 3 special assessment predicted a significant likelihood of violence on Capitol grounds by extremist groups, it did not identify a specific and credible threat indicating that thousands of U.S. citizens would go down to the U.S. Capitol attacking police officers with the aim of breaking into the U.S. Capitol building to harm members and prevent certification of Electoral College votes, ”Pittman says in his testimony.
Steven Sund, a former police chief who resigned after the riot, said on Tuesday that the intelligence assessment warned white supremacists, members of the far-right Proud Boys and the anti-terrorist group. left that was expected to be in the crowd and could become violent.
“We envisioned the possibility of violence, the possibility that some people were armed, not the possibility of a coordinated military-style attack involving thousands of people against the Capitol,” Sund said.
The FBI also sent a warning to local law enforcement officials about online posts that a “war” would ensue. But Pittman said it was still not enough to prepare for the crowd that attacked the Capitol.
Officers greatly outnumbered thousands of insurgents who descended on the building, some of them wielding wooden planks, stun guns, bear spray and metal pipes when they broke windows and doors and went break into the Capitol. Officers were beaten with barricades, pushed to the ground, trapped between doors, beaten and bloodied while members of Congress were evacuated and Congress officials restricted to offices.
Should the police have been better prepared?
With the amount of information available to Capitol police, it is surprising that they did not take additional steps to bolster security and protect their officers, said Tom Warrick, a former counterterrorism officer who served in the Obama administration.
“On Jan. 6, the only strategic location in the entire U.S. national capital region to be defended was the U.S. Capitol,” Warrick said, now with the Atlantic Council. “So it was really disappointing for people to declare that ‘we didn’t know there would be violence.’ When you’re the target, assume that things like that can happen even if you don’t have the intellectual information.”
Even without access to secure intelligence, there were months of warning signs in the public eye that riot police would try to do what they did, said Bruce Hoffman, a former commissioner of the U.S. Review Commission. ‘September 11 and main member of the fight against terrorism and national security the Foreign Affairs Council.
A plot uncovered by federal law enforcement to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was a major red flag and many of the riot police took to social media to echo Trump’s calls to “stop the theft “and speculate on violence.
“Historically, the default value is always to blame it on a failure of intelligence when there can often be other reasons,” Hoffman said. “I think it was very obvious to anyone … that there would be a confrontation.”
Pittman also says the department faced “internal challenges” while responding to the riot. Officers did not properly close the Capitol complex, even after a radio order was issued to do so. He also says officers did not understand when they were allowed to use deadly force and that the less lethal weapons the officers had were not as successful as they had hoped.
While Pittman says in his testimony that sergeants and lieutenants were supposed to pass on the information to the rank of the department, many officers have said they were given little or no information or training on what they would face. Four officers told The Associated Press shortly after the riot that they heard nothing from Sund, Pittman or other top commanders as the building was breached. Officers were left in many cases to improvise or try to save comrades who were in danger.
Pittman is also facing internal pressure from her grade, especially after last week the Capitol Police union cast a censure vote against her. He must also lead the department at the start of various investigations into how law enforcement could not protect the building.
Capitol police are investigating the actions of 35 police officers on the day of the riot; six of those officers have been suspended on pay, a police spokesman said.
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A trader reported from Houston. Associated Press writers Ben Fox and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.