Name: Before Mob Stormed the Capitol, Days of Security Planning Involved Cabinet Officials and President Trump
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Before Mob Stormed the Capitol, Days of Security Planning Involved Cabinet Officials and President Trump

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The Effort to Overturn the ElectionProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.President Donald Trump met with top military officials and gave his approval to activate the D.C. National Guard three days before he encouraged a mob of angry protesters to take their grievances to the U.S. Capitol.A Pentagon released Friday offers these insights, as well as the first detailed timeline of the bungled law enforcement response to Wednesday’s insurrection.The timeline shows that the planning started at least as far back as Dec. 31 and included discussion with select Cabinet members of the potential need for Pentagon reinforcements.Subscribe to the Big Story newsletter.But it also leaves many questions unanswered, including why the U.S. Capitol Police declined repeated offers of assistance from military officials and the full extent of how much Trump knew about the security planning or was involved in decision-making.The memo, first reported on by on Friday evening, presents a limited account of the days before the insurrection, and questioned the completeness of the Pentagon’s version of events and the effectiveness of its planning and response. But the memo may well provide a partial roadmap as legislators for an investigation into how pro-Trump protesters breached the Capitol in a riot that left five people dead, . Three officials who supervise the force have already submitted resignations.Here’s what we know so far, and what we don’t.The Pentagon’s timeline begins on the last day of 2020, when Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and another city official delivered a written request for D.C. National Guard support on Wednesday. For weeks, Trump supporters had for descending on Washington that day to protest the election results as Congress certified the Electoral College votes that sealed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. In the days after, Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller met with “select Cabinet Members,” the memo says without specifying which, to discuss Defense Department involvement and “potential requirements” for DOD support.On Sunday, Jan. 3, Miller and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, met with Trump. According to the memo, the president “concurs in activation” of the National Guard to “support law enforcement.” Miller approved the activation of 340 Guard members the following day.The details of Trump’s conversation with Miller and Milley are not known.Swarms of pro-Trump protesters assembled in Washington on Wednesday morning, starting at the Ellipse to hear Trump speak and heeding his suggestion that they take their complaints to the Capitol, where Congress was meeting in joint session to certify Biden’s election. Trump ended his remarks just after 1 p.m.Around 11:30 that morning, Miller participated in a tabletop planning exercise regarding DOD’s “contingency response options,” the memo says. While Miller participated in numerous preparatory conversations with local and federal officials in the week leading up to Wednesday, the timeline gives no indication that any formal planning exercises took place before the day of the attack. The Pentagon did not immediately provide an explanation for the eleventh-hour exercise.A ProPublica-FRONTLINE review of the insurrection found several noted hardcore nativists and white nationalists who also participated in the 2017 white power rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.Three days before the mob overtook the Capitol, DOD contacted the U.S. Capitol Police to confirm that the force was not requesting backup in advance of the scheduled protests, according to the timeline. The next day, the memo says, USCP officials participated in a phone call with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and once again confirmed they did not need the Pentagon’s support.That position only changed at 1:49 on Wednesday afternoon, when USCP Chief Steven Sund called requesting immediate assistance. By then, members of Congress were sheltering in place, with the mob minutes away from breaching the Capitol steps.It remains unclear what intelligence the Capitol Police, which boasts more than 2,300 employees and a budget of over $400 million, gathered in anticipation of Wednesday’s events or why Sund declined to bolster the Capitol’s defenses. Sund’s resignation was announced on Thursday, and he will leave his position on Jan. 16. Sund and the USCP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.After Bowser sent her New Year’s Eve request for help from the D.C. National Guard, the DOD memo says it approved sending 340 Guard members to support local officials. It further says that on Tuesday, Bowser delivered a letter confirming that Washington officials had all the support they needed.But a spokesperson for Bowser’s office told that it was McCarthy, not the mayor, who made the key decisions about the National Guard’s response, including setting the number of personnel and establishing “that the guard members were not to move East of 9th Street NW,” blocks away from the Capitol itself.At 1:26 p.m. Wednesday, with a mob of protesters about to push through police lines, the USCP ordered the Capitol evacuated. Eight minutes later, according to the DOD timeline, Bowser was on the phone with McCarthy requesting an “unspecified number of additional forces.” Sund’s call to Pentagon officials followed shortly thereafter.At 3 p.m., more than an hour after the mayor’s call, Miller determined that D.C. National Guard forces were needed to reestablish control of the Capitol, and minutes later, he formally approved the full activation of the D.C. National Guard. At 5:02 p.m., 154 guard members left the D.C. Armory to head to the Capitol, where they arrived roughly 40 minutes later.By 6:14 p.m., law enforcement had successfully established a perimeter around the west side of the Capitol, according to the memo, and at 8 p.m., Capitol Police declared the building secure.Brian David Sicknick, 42, died of injuries sustained while trying to protect the Capitol. Family members say they don’t want his death politicized. But they do want to understand what happened.Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. You are are free to republish it so long as you do the following:Copy and paste the following into your page to republish:

The Effort to Overturn the ElectionProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.President Donald Trump met with top military officials and gave his approval to activate the D.C. National Guard three days before he encouraged a mob of angry protesters to take their grievances to the U.S. Capitol.A Pentagon released Friday offers these insights, as well as the first detailed timeline of the bungled law enforcement response to Wednesday’s insurrection.The timeline shows that the planning started at least as far back as...

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Senior Reporting Fellow @propublica | Writing @wcp, @slate, @DCist, @ozm, @spotlight4DC, @hyperallergic | Email me at joshua.kaplan@propublica.org

Joshua Kaplan

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.

Before Mob Stormed the Capitol, Days of Security Planning Involved Cabinet Officials and President Trump

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