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Chief:
Capitol
assault
much
bigger
than
intel
suggested
By
MICHAEL
BALSAMO,
MARY
CLARE
JALONICK
and
NOMAAN
MERCHANT
apnews.com
WASHINGTON
- The
acting
U.S.
Capitol
Police
chief
was
pressed
to
explain
Thursday
why the
agency
hadn’t
been
prepared
to fend
off a
violent
mob of
insurrectionists,
including
white
supremacists,
who were
trying
to halt
the
certification
of the
presidential
election
last
month,
even
though
officials
had
compelling
advance
intelligence.
Acting
Chief
Yogananda
Pittman
denied
that law
enforcement
failed
to take
seriously
warnings
of
violence
before
the Jan.
6
insurrection.
Three
days
before
the
riot,
Capitol
Police
distributed
an
internal
document
warning
that
armed
extremists
were
poised
for
violence
and
could
attack
Congress
because
they saw
it as
the last
chance
to try
to
overturn
the
election
results,
Pittman
said.
But
the
assault
was much
bigger
than
they
expected,
she
said.
“There
was no
such
intelligence.
Although
we knew
the
likelihood
for
violence
by
extremists,
no
credible
threat
indicated
that
tens of
thousands
would
attack
the U.S.
Capitol,
nor did
the
intelligence
received
from the
FBI or
any
other
law
enforcement
partner
indicate
such a
threat.”
Later,
under
questioning
by the
House
subcommittee’s
chairman,
Rep. Tim
Ryan,
Pittman
said
that
while
there
may have
been
thousands
of
people
heading
to the
Capitol
from a
pro-Trump
rally,
about
800
people
actually
made
their
way into
the
building.
Pittman
conceded
that the
agency’s
incident
command
protocols
were
“not
adhered
to,” and
that
there
was a
“multi-tiered
failure.”
Officers
were
left
without
proper
communication
or
strong
guidance
from
their
supervisors
as the
insurrectionist
mob
stormed
into the
building.
The
panel’s
top
Republican,
Washington
Rep.
Jaime
Herrera-Beutler,
said the
top
Capitol
Police
officials
“either
failed
to take
seriously
the
intelligence
received
or the
intelligence
failed
to reach
the
right
people.”
Pittman’s
predecessor
as chief
testified
earlier
this
week at
a
hearing
that
police
expected
an
enraged
but more
typical
protest
crowd of
Trump
backers.
But
Pittman
said
intelligence
collected
before
the riot
prompted
police
to take
extraordinary
measures,
including
the
special
arming
of
officers,
intercepting
radio
frequencies
used by
the
invaders
and
deploying
spies at
the
Ellipse
rally
where
Trump
was
sending
his
supporters
marching
to the
Capitol
to
“fight
like
hell.
On
Jan. 3,
Capitol
Police
distributed
an
internal
intelligence
assessment
warning
that
militia
members,
white
supremacists
and
other
extremist
groups
were
likely
to
participate,
that
demonstrators
would be
armed
and that
it was
possible
they
would
come to
the
Capitol
to try
to
disrupt
the
vote,
according
to
Pittman.
But
at the
same
time,
she said
police
didn’t
have
enough
intelligence
to
predict
the
violent
insurrection
that
resulted
in five
deaths,
including
that of
a
Capitol
Police
officer.
They
prepared
for
trouble
but not
an
invasion.
“Although
the
Department’s
January
3rd
Special
Assessment
foretold
of a
significant
likelihood
for
violence
on
Capitol
grounds
by
extremists
groups,
it did
not
identify
a
specific
credible
threat
indicating
that
thousands
of
American
citizens
would
descend
upon the
U.S.
Capitol
attacking
police
officers
with the
goal of
breaking
into the
U.S.
Capitol
Building
to harm
Members
and
prevent
the
certification
of
Electoral
College
votes,”
Pittman
said.
Steven
Sund,
the
police
force’s
former
chief
who
resigned
after
the
riot,
testified
Tuesday
that the
intelligence
assessment
warned
white
supremacists,
members
of the
far-right
Proud
Boys and
leftist
antifa
were
expected
to be in
the
crowd
and
might
become
violent.
“We
had
planned
for the
possibility
of
violence,
the
possibility
of some
people
being
armed,
not the
possibility
of a
coordinated
military
style
attack
involving
thousands
against
the
Capitol,”
Sund
said.
The
FBI also
forwarded
a
warning
to local
law
enforcement
officials
about
online
postings
that a
“war”
was
coming.
But
Pittman
said it
still
wasn’t
enough
to
prepare
for the
mob that
attacked
the
Capitol.
Officers
were
vastly
outnumbered
as
thousands
of
rioters
descended
on the
building,
some of
them
wielding
planks
of wood,
stun
guns,
bear
spray
and
metal
pipes as
they
broke
through
windows
and
doors
and
stormed
through
the
Capitol.
Officers
were hit
with
barricades,
shoved
to the
ground,
trapped
between
doors,
beaten
and
bloodied
as
members
of
Congress
were
evacuated
and
congressional
staffers
cowered
in
offices.
Pittman
also
said the
department
faced
“internal
challenges”
as it
responded
to the
riot.
Officers
didn’t
properly
lock
down the
Capitol
complex,
even
after an
order
had been
given
over the
radio to
do so.
She also
said
officers
didn’t
understand
when
they
were
allowed
to use
deadly
force,
and that
less-than-lethal
weapons
that
officers
had were
not as
successful
as they
expected.
While
Pittman
said in
her
testimony
that
that
sergeants
and
lieutenants
were
supposed
to pass
on
intelligence
to the
department’s
rank and
file,
many
officers
have
said
they
were
given
little
or no
information
or
training
for 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
colleagues
facing
peril.
Pittman
also
faces
internal
pressure
from her
rank and
file,
particularly
after
the
Capitol
Police
union
recently
issued a
vote of
no
confidence
against
her. She
must
also
lead the
department
through
the
start of
several
investigations
into how
law
enforcement
failed
to
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
with
pay, a
police
spokesman
said.
___
Merchant
reported
from
Houston.
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