Where was the Federal Support for the Capitol Police During the Insurrection?
The National Guard, the DC police, the forces of the Justice Department, and the forces of Homeland Security were all conspicuously MIA (missing in action) early on during the Capitol takeover this week. This Capitol takeover was not a surprise; this was planned on the Internet for over a month to prevent Congress’ ceremonial certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The President tweeted about it; the right wing groups openly discussed it. There have been street battles in DC for several months as the President’s far right, militant supporters clashed with whomsoever was available for street skirmishes during the lead-up. There were armed invasions of the state Capitol in Michigan as precedent. The size of the gathering with Trump before he said, “go” was readily ascertainable. Some in the crowd were armed, and that too was known in advance. Five people died during and in the aftermath of the Capitol takeover. The roles of Senators Hawley and Cruz were on open display along with most of the House GOP leadership, except Liz Cheney, in trying to overthrow the results of a democratic election.
The Governor of Maryland sought to dispatch the state’s National Guard to help out at the Capitol, but someone within the Department of Defense blocked it. https://www.businessinsider.com/maryland-governor-repeatedly-tried-to-deploy-national-guard-in-dc-2021-1 The DC Mayor asked for the DC National Guard four days in advance of the insurrection; they were doing traffic control. https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2465573/defense-officials-detail-national-guard-response-to-capitol-attack/ The President was unwilling to call out the Guard on his supporters who were doing his bidding. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/06/pentagon-has-not-approved-request-for-national-guard-to-come-to-capitol.html
The acting Homeland Security Secretary was visiting Coast Guard facilities in the Middle East. When he criticized the rioters and urged a strong condemnation from the President, the White House withdrew his nomination for Permanent Secretary from the Senate. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/533105-acting-dhs-secretary-says-trump-should-strongly-condemn-violence-at The Acting Deputy Secretary, Ken Cucinelli, who was in his office watching the events unfold on TV, indicated he was surprised by the events and the ease with which the insurrectionists penetrated the Capitol and invaded the Chambers. The rioters outnumbered and rapidly overwhelmed the Capitol Police force that had no back up for well over an hour. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-capitol-security-insight/how-security-failures-enabled-trump-mob-to-storm-u-s-capitol-idUSKBN29C0R5 A day before the takeover, an FBI internal document warned that the extremists were preparing for violence and war, had plans of all the Capitol tunnels, and were prepared to wage war or die to secure Trump’s re-election.
The only Administration official who acted promptly to bring in law enforcement reinforcements against the insurrectionists was Vice President Pence who had been whisked off the Senate floor to a safe and secure location by Capitol Police. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/pence-national-guard/index.html As hard as we all may find it to believe, President Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani were working Senators cell phones throughout the siege trying to persuade Senator Tuberville and others to further delay the votes on up to ten states.
It may just have been coincidence that the President ousted the heads of the Department of Defense and Justice Departments in November and December respectively. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/11/933868828/shake-up-at-pentagon-puts-trump-loyalists-into-senior-roles and https://www.npr.org/2020/12/14/811276917/william-barr-to-steps-down-as-attorney-general Their replacements signally delayed in performing their sworn duties under the Constitution to send in the law enforcement until after the Capitol was occupied and the counting of the Electoral College votes disrupted.
The lack of federal back up might also be due to the decisions of DC Mayor Bowser and the DC police who were reluctant to bring in overwhelming federal forces to avoid a repeat of the events of last summer, and possibly it also is due to the confusion of overlapping roles and jurisdictions of the DC police, Capitol Police, Secret Service and US Park Service police. https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/07/954349992/where-was-the-security-when-a-mob-stormed-the-capitol Bowser urged DC citizens to stay off the street and avoid interactions with the Trump mob; she did the same with antifa; she was successful in avoiding widespread violence in the streets. The rightwing commentators nevertheless blamed the violence of the right wing militia groups that we all just witnessed on antifa instead.
Thirteen individuals are now being charged by the Department of Justice for their roles in the Capitol take-over. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/thirteen-charged-federal-court-following-riot-united-states-capitol The FBI is searching for and arresting other identifiable individuals from all over the country. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/fbi-tips-insurrection-riot-capitol-hill-trnd/index.html and https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/rioters-storming-capitol-trump-election-lies-social-media Will they all be put on trial, what will they be charged with, who will defend them, how will judges and juries respond?
I wondered where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was during the insurrection. He is an experienced army officer. Was he overseas as well, what was he doing?
Was the Administration’s failure to protect our Capitol an accident or was it planned? Was the President looking for an opportunity to declare martial law? Did the absence of antifa deprive the President of the violent incident he hoped to create and stoke?
Try to imagine what might have happened if the inflamed mob had gotten their hands on Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, or Chuck Schumer to name just a few. They likely owe their lives this week to the courage of the Capitol Police. Try to imagine if they were killed or held hostage by the insurrectionists.
I have had experience with many large protest rallies in DC and Boston during the 60’s and 70’s on highly fraught, highly emotional issues, such as the Vietnam War and Civil Rights, and Kent State both as a protest participant and as a lawyer representing protesters. My experience is that each planned protest had its own marshals and crowd control to keep matters from becoming too unruly; none of that was in evidence in the pictures of this week’s event. Crowd control marshals were typically successful in keeping the peace; disturbances, when they happened, often broke out after the rally ended as people were returning to their cars and lodging. These rallies, while filled with anti-government rhetoric and dedicated to stopping the war, often had their civil disobedience elements carefully planned and orchestrated as to who was going to be arrested at what point. There were huge back-up forces of law enforcement and military pre-stationed in buses close to the demonstration; none was pre-stationed during the Capitol takeover. I was not present in Chicago during the student demonstrations and police riot in Grant Park during the Democratic Convention, which got so badly out of control.
The deployment of law enforcement at times can be highly provocative and intended to suppress peaceful protest and dissent as well as keep civil order. In this case the President wanted to support the dissent and the protests, exactly how far did he want them to go, and how much did he restrain federal back-up?
There were symbolic occupations of college buildings during the 60s and 70s; on occasion there was vandalism. I do not recall any takeovers of government buildings while a state legislature was in session from this era. Certainly there were ritualized protests during legislative hearings, and the protesters were forcibly removed.
This was clearly different; it was a mob set on overturning the Presidential election set in motion by the President himself to secure another four years of his reign; they were armed for a fight and wanted one. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-capitol-security-insight/how-security-failures-enabled-trump-mob-to-storm-u-s-capitol-idUSKBN29C0R5 I have never seen an armed protest set out to attack the police as this one did. I think they would have attacked and beaten or held hostage Congresspersons and staff as well if they had not been quickly evacuated. Once they occupied the Capitol, they had no clue what to do next, except destroy, vandalize and break things and take pictures of themselves posing; they were not certainly not petitioning government to address their grievances. Some had more specific plans and went looking for Speaker Pelosi; some had hostage ties in their hands.
How spontaneous was the takeover? I had the impression it was well planned and executed. How heavily armed were they? There were rifles, pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails. From the last few days of their internet commentary, they are coming back, ready for more action in the days leading up to and including the inauguration, and the President is unrepentant for his actions.
My impression was that the President expected that Republicans in Congress and the Vice President would rally to his side after this demonstration of his ability to call out a whipped up and frenzied mob. He badly miscalculated, and he alienated many in his own party and his own government; others still remain staunch adherents. He told the Capitol insurrectionists that they were special people and he loved them. https://variety.com/2021/politics/news/trump-protesters-riot-capitol-video-1234879939/ He has now taken refuge and been banned from Twitter and Facebook. He is very bitter towards McConnell and Pence for not supporting him during his electoral coup efforts.
We have no precedent for calling the President to account for such actions. The 25th Amendment and Impeachment are the only obviously available tools since the Justice Department maintains that a sitting President cannot be charged with a criminal offense. My preference is for the 25th, but the VP does not yet want to invoke the 25th, and there is very little time left in his term to impeach Trump for a second time. The President is likely to seek to try to pardon himself on his way out of office; there is an exception in the President’s pardon power for impeachment. Will he also seek to pardon those insurrectionists who broke into our nation’s Capitol? What is our recourse beyond returning him to Mar a Lago, Bedminster and his golf courses in less than two weeks? Impeachment makes him a martyr to his faithful unless leading Republicans actually step up and take a big share of the lead and responsibility for his removal.
Lucien Wulsin
1/9/21