New investigation: Failings in Capitol Police leadership

 

BREAKING: Read our latest investigation, Inside the Capitol Cops’ Jan. 6 Blame Game, now on POGO and Rolling Stone We recently obtained new reports detailing Capitol Police leadership’s mishandling of intelligence in the lead up to the January 6 insurrection, which contributed to the agency’s failed defense of the Capitol. We’re releasing the information we found on our website today: Read now. One of the biggest intelligence failures involved material available to anyone with an internet connection. Almost as soon as then-President Donald Trump lost the November 2020 election, the hate-filled online posts began — including violent threats to individual members of Congress. The pace of these posts picked up after December 19, 2020, when Trump called on his supporters to come to the Capitol on the day Congress would certify the election results. Extremists called for murdering several congressional leaders by name, threatening lawmakers including Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Mitt Romney, and Mitch McConnell. According to sources, and emails obtained by POGO, these online posts were in the possession of the Capitol Police’s intelligence division. However, in the months leading up to January 6, leaders of the intelligence division “essentially dismantled” a unit that analyzed online chatter. No agency issued a consistent or widely circulated warning about the gravity of the threat in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol. As a result, rank-and-file Capitol Police officers were unprepared to handle the mob of protesters, many of whom had publicly declared violent aims online. That’s just a sample of the intelligence failures that left lawmakers in mortal danger on a day when democracy hung in the balance. Read the full investigation for more. The January 6 committee will begin its public hearings tonight, and sources say they will present new findings regarding Capitol security and intelligence breakdowns. We'll be following along to see if the committee’s questions yield any new insights into these failures. Brandon Brockmyer Director of Investigations and Research Project On Government Oversight Contribute

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