Capitol Police officer claims acting police chief lied to Congress about Jan 6

The anonymous former high-ranking Capitol Police official sent the letter to Republican and Democrat leaders in Congress late last month.

A majority of the letter focused on the Capitol Police's acting chief Sean Gallagher and assistant chief Yogananda Pittman for their shortcomings on handling Jan. 6. But blame is also casted on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for not forcing the United States Capitol Police (USCP) to be held accountable in that regard.

(The entire 16-page letter is available to read here.)

In the story that first broke on Friday via POLITICO, the whistleblower said both Gallagher and Pittman intentionally chose not to help officers in the line of duty that day:

"These two filed to take appropriate action which directly contributed to the deaths and wounding of officers and civilians. In the command center, they simply watched mostly with their hands in their laps. They did not try to help or assist officers and officials were literally fighting for each other, their lives and the Congress. These two instead, while officers were being injured, elected to do nothing, lie and attempt to profit professionally. They chose to watch, as one non USCP witness stated 'like two bumps on a log', make calls and start to blame everyone for their failures."

Furthermore, the letter says Pittman lied to Congress about an intel report the Capitol Police had a day before the Jan. 6 riot happened:

"Amongst other statements testified to in the Senate Rules Committee report Pittman states that the Department sent the single most critical intelligence report, 21-TD-159, to 'Command staff to include assistant chiefs and deputy chiefs' (Footnote 232). This is unconditionally false. It was never sent or shared. It also was never used to update any intelligence brief forwarded to the commanders, The single most important piece of intelligence information, known since December 21st, as identified by the Senate Report and the OIG Report was never shared with any members of USCP Leadership."

The USCP organization then responded to the letter. "USCP leaders, under new Chief Tom Manger, are committed to learning from prior mistakes and protecting our brave officers, who fought valiantly on January 6, so we can continue to carry out the Department’s critical mission," they said in a statement to NBC News.

In the months following the Capitol riot, the FBI concluded that there's "scant evidence" of an organized conspiracy having taken place to overturn the election results. Last month, it came out that the FBI had an informant with the Proud Boys feeding information back to the agency as events unfolded that day.

When it comes to convictions and plea deals surrounding Jan. 6, the Department of Justice recently dropped a felony charge against Brandon Straka of the #WalkAway campaign. In the case of former Olympic swimmer Klete Keller, he pleaded guilty to an obstruction of an official proceeding charge.