June 8 (UPI) — The American intelligence community did not warn U.S. Capitol Police about possible violence ahead of the Jan. 6 attack by radical supporters of former President Donald Trump, a bipartisan Senate report said Tuesday.
Members of the Senate homeland security and rules committees said in the report that coupled with issues about interagency information sharing, Capitol Police intelligence also “failed to convey the full scope of threat information they possessed.”
Because of those failings, Capitol Police on the ground weren’t prepared to respond to the mob that gathered at the Capitol while “opaque” processes prevented the National Guard from assisting police in a timely manner, the inquiry found.
“The intelligence failures, coupled with the Capitol Police Board’s failure to request National Guard assistance prior to Jan. 6, meant the District of Columbia National Guard was not activated, staged, and prepared to quickly respond to an attack on the Capitol,” the report states.
“As the attack unfolded, the Department of Defense required time to approve the request and gather, equip and instruct its personnel on the mission, which resulted in additional delays.”
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the ranking Republican of the homeland security committee, said the panel would make recommendations to prevention similar attacks in the future. They include changes in information-sharing and communication, training for Capitol Police and improvement in coordination among federal, state and local law enforcement.
“Over the past five months, our committees have worked together in a bipartisan way to thoroughly investigate the intelligence and security failures prior to and on Jan. 6 and to develop recommendations to address them,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the ranking Republican on the rules committee.
Tuesday’s report recommended processes to achieve mutual aid agreements among federal, state and local agencies, including all partners in the National Capital Region, are regularly reviewed and updated.
