“Based on this information,” she added, it is “prudent for the Capitol Police to maintain its enhanced security posture until we resolve these issues in the future.”
Pittman said that existing intelligence underlined that the rebels who invaded the Capitol “were not only interested in attacking members and officers. They wanted to send a symbolic message to the nation about who was in charge of that legislative process.”
While the authorities are aware of future attacks being discussed by the militia groups that attacked the Capitol on January 6, it is unclear how developed or serious the intelligence around these plans can be. President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address at a joint session of Congress should not be scheduled before his pandemic aid package is approved.
Pittman, who took over after his predecessor resigned, raised the issue after she was pressured by several lawmakers about when fences, barbed wire and National Guard units would be removed from the Capitol’s security posture. Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) Said the improved measures “make the seat of democracy look like a military base”.
The discussion came after Pittman also added new elements to the timeline of lapses during the insurrection that complicated the version of events told by Capitol security officials who resigned after the insurrection. Pittman said he pulled ex-chief Steven Sund’s phone records and confirmed that he contacted the House and Senate arms sergeants at 12:58 pm and 1:05 pm, respectively. Sund told lawmakers that he first contacted at 1:09 pm – a deadline that a former arms sergeant contested in the Senate testimony this week.
Pittman’s revelation, made during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday about the security consequences of last month’s riot, alters the timeline Sund and other former Capitol security officials provided to senators about security breaches. And it adds a new layer of confusion about how communication failures occurred when Donald Trump supporters invaded the Capitol.
Former Chamber weapons sergeant Paul Irving told senators that he had not heard from Sund until 1:28 pm and that no formal requests for assistance from the National Guard had been made before 2:00 pm. Pittman’s testimony appears to support the narrative shared by Sund, who resigned shortly after violent rebels threatened with the transfer of presidential power.
This discrepancy between former employees’ memories of their response is an initial defining element of the investigation into the management of the insurrection. And Sund’s recollection seemed suspicious, as Irving’s video on the House floor at 1:09 pm seemed to confirm his account. But Pittman’s revelation suggests that Sund may have contacted Irving 11 minutes earlier than previously thought – and with Irving’s Senate counterpart, Michael Stenger, just minutes after that.
Senators requested telephone records from employees to define this aspect of the schedule.
On Thursday, Pittman and acting weapons sergeant Timothy Blodgett echoed a refrain advanced by other former officials to senators: that the January 6 security breaches were the result of inadequate intelligence provided by the FBI, Homeland Security and other agencies, as opposed to a misreading of available intelligence.
Panel legislators made it clear that they are still furious at the Capitol Police’s apparent failure to fully protect Congress. Deputy Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee, said he did not believe the agency was “so needy and ill-prepared” for the violence that unfolded that day, especially when many of the insurrectionists were detailing their plans for the future. seen on social networks.
Ryan also noted that intelligence security officials, however limited, still pointed to a significant risk of violence on January 6. A last-minute request from Sund for more helmets underscored that he predicted danger for officers, Ryan noted.
“I, at least, cannot understand how his intelligence report – and then when the crowd walked 16 blocks, growing in size and aggressive behavior – failed to impact the Capitol Police security posture,” said Ryan.
Beutler pressured Pittman and Blodgett about why members of the House were trapped in the House plenary, even while the Senate was being evacuated.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) Said that her opinion is that the Capitol Police Council – the four-member entity that oversees the day-to-day security of the Capitol and includes the chief, the sergeants in arms and the architect of the Capitol – failed on January 6 and proved obsolete.
“It’s like your appendix. It’s just there. It has no real function, ”said DeLauro.
DeLauro also pressured Pittman for an update on the investigations of 35 police officers for alleged misconduct on January 6. Pittman said they are still in progress, although they typically last 60 to 90 days. Pittman also pledged to release the results as soon as they were achieved.