Trump called for National Guard to be on hand for J6—Pentagon officials delayed over 'optics': report

The Committee on House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight led by Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) has uncovered statement from key personnel on January 6, 2021, that show that Pentagon officials needlessly delayed the National Guard response to the protest and riot going on at the Capitol building for “optics.”

The transcripts released from the report show that General Mark Milley of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recalled a conversation that Trump had with Pentagon officials on January 3, a few days before the incident. Trump had wanted the protests to stay safe, and Milley recalled that the Trump told him and other Pentagon officials "do whatever you have to do. Just make sure it’s safe."



Milley recalled the January 3 conversation between Trump and Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller in an April 16 interview:

“The President just says, ‘Hey, look at this. There’s going to be a large amount of protestors here on the 6th, make sure that you have sufficient National Guard or Soldiers to make sure it’s a safe event.’… [POTUS said] I don’t care if you use Guard, or Soldiers, active-duty Soldiers, do whatever you have to do. Just make sure it’s safe.' [SecDef] Miller responds by saying, 'Hey, we’ve got a plan, and we’ve got it covered.'”

On January 6, 2021, the outer perimeter on the West Front of the US Capitol had was breached by protesters at around 12:53 pm. Miller did not give approval for the DC National Guard until 3:04 pm and that message did not get to Major General William Walker, the general overseeing the DC Guard, until 5:08 pm, more than two hours later, per the timeline from the Subcommittee.

After the fact, Miller said in an interview conducted by the Department of Defense Inspector General on March 12, 2021, that on J6, “There was absolutely -- there is absolutely no way I was putting US military forces at the Capitol, period."

Trump had requested that there be 10,000 National Guard troops at the Capitol building for that day, as stated by Miller in a different interview transcript conducted by the J6 Select Subcommittee, where he said that "the President commented that they were going to need 10,000 troops" on J6 from the National Guard.

However, Miller told the DoD that in his mind, if US military forces were to be used, it was "last resort" because, he commented, "If we put US military personnel on the Capitol it would have created ... the greatest Constitutional crisis probably since the Civil War because that would have been interpreted by the press, by the punditry, but most importantly by the elected officials on the Hill as an effort by the Trump administration to influence the Electoral College count."

Miller feared that the image of the military at the Capitol would suggest that Trump was going to enforce martial law in order to "redo the election."

Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, in his March 2021 interview with the DoD, said that he also became aware of a “January 4th memo that was put out by the Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller that looks like it pushed some pretty significant restraints on the DC National Guard.”

In addition, when Sund joined a conference call with other military and law enforcement leaders at around 2:30 pm on J6, Director of the Army Staff, Lieutenant Walter Piatt as well as Gen. Charles Flynn - who was deputy chief of staff for operations on J6 - both told Capitol Police Chief Sund and others that he didn’t want the National Guard because of the “optics of the National Guard standing in a line with the Capitol in the background.” Piatt and Flynn were the highest-ranking military officers on the call, according to a Politico report that corroborates the accusations about Piatt and Flynn wanting to delay the National Guard response.