WASHINGTON (AP) – Police were on high alert on Thursday around the US Capitol after intelligence discovered a “possible plot” by a militia group to break into the iconic building again, two months after a crowd of supporters of Donald Trump broke the windows and doors of try to prevent Congress from certifying the victory of now President Joe Biden.
The threat appears to be linked to a far-right conspiracy theory, promoted mainly by QAnon supporters, that former President Trump will rise to power again on March 4 and that thousands will come to Washington, DC, to try to remove the Democrats the position. March 4 was the day of the original presidential inauguration until 1933, when it was moved to January 20.
The online conversation identified by the authorities included discussions between members of Three Percenters, an anti-government militia group, about possible conspiracies against Capitol on Thursday, according to two police officers who were not allowed to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Three Percenters members were among the extremists who attacked the Capitol on January 6.
The threat came while Capitol police and other law enforcement agencies were receiving criticism from Congress at contentious hearings this week about the inadequate handling of the January 6 riot. The police were poorly prepared to the mass of Trump supporters in tactical gear, some armed, and it took hours for the National Guard reinforcements to arrive. By this time, troublemakers had invaded the building and invaded the corridors for hours, temporarily paralyzing Congressional certification efforts and making lawmakers go into hiding.
Lawmakers, Congressional officials and law enforcement officials are still nervous after the January 6 attack, even with the security posture around the Capitol at an unprecedented level.
The US House closed the week’s work on Wednesday night, but the US Senate still had a busy day scheduled for Thursday with votes moving into the night. The police reinforced their presence in and around the Capitol. About 5,200 members of the National Guard remain in DC, the remainder of the nearly 26,000 who were brought into President Biden’s inauguration in January, which left without a hitch.
There is also a very large fence around the perimeter of the United States Capitol that blocks all avenues of entry, including the streets around the building, built after January 6. And Trump is in Florida.
Representative Michael McCaul, R-Texas, former chairman of the House’s Internal Security Committee and among those briefed on the new threat, said lawmakers were prepared.
“I think we will see some violence here,” he said in an interview.
But, unlike January 6, the Capitol is now fortified against intrusions. “We have the barbed wire, we have the National Guard. We didn’t have that January 6th. So I feel very confident about security. “
McCaul warned that there may be another tactic of amusement – much like the bombs discovered in the political campaign offices on January 6 appeared to be an attempt to lure the police away from the Capitol before the insurrection.
Initially, it seemed that the online conversation did not reach the level of serious concern; a statement sent earlier this week to members of Congress by Timothy Blodgett, the acting House weapons sergeant, said the Capitol Police “had no indication that groups would travel to Washington DC to protest or commit acts of violence”.
But that warning was updated in a note to lawmakers on Wednesday morning. Blodgett wrote that the Capitol Police received “new and worrying information and intelligence, indicating additional interest in the Capitol for the dates of 4 to 6 March by a militia group”.
Capitol acting police chief Yogananda Pittman said during a testimony in the House on Wednesday that his investigators had collected “some intelligence data” but declined to provide any details publicly, saying he was “sensitive to the application. of the law “and that it would provide private information to the member subcommittee.
Meanwhile, federal agents have not found significant increases in the number of hotel rooms being rented in Washington, as well as monitored flights to the area, car rental reservations and any chartered buses to bring groups to the capital, said a person familiar with the situation. of the subject. The Associated Press. The person was unable to publicly discuss the details of the security plan and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security also sent a joint intelligence bulletin to local police on Tuesday warning that a group of extremist militias had discussed trying to take control of the Capitol on March 4 and encouraging thousands of people to come to Washington to try to remove Democrats from power.
But there was a noticeable decline in online activity on some social media platforms around the March 4 efforts, and there were already considerably fewer online conversations than during the period leading up to January 6, a day that Trump had repeatedly promoted to a his came together and encouraged thousands of people to come to the country’s capital.
Several QAnon groups still operating on the social media messaging platform Telegram warned followers to stay away from any events on March 4, claiming it was a setup for Trump supporters.
In addition, thousands of accounts which hosted the January 6 event that led to a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol were suspended by major technology companies like Facebook and Twitter, making it much more difficult for QAnon and far-right groups to organize a replay of the mass meeting.
Twitter banned more than 70,000 accounts after the disturbances, while Facebook and Instagram removed posts mentioning “stop the theft,” a pro-Trump rallying cry used to mobilize their supporters in January. And the conservative social media platform Parler, which many Trump supporters have joined to promote false electoral fraud conspiracy theories and encourage friends to “break into” the Capitol on January 6, was kicked out of the internet after the siege.
So far, about 300 people have been charged with federal crimes for their roles in the riot. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died.
Since his defeat, Trump has been promoting lies that the election has been stolen him through mass electoral fraud, although such claims have been dismissed by judges, Republican state officials and the Trump administration itself. He was impeached by the Chamber after the January 6 riot for inciting insurrection but he was acquitted by the Senate.
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Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant in Houston; Colleen Long, Alan Fram and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington; and Amanda Seitz in Chicago contributed to this report.