Watchdogs for the Justice Department and the Pentagon announced that they were opening investigations into the siege of the Capitol to review the actions that their departments took and should have taken in the lead-up to and during the chaos and violence last week.
The Justice Department’s watchdog office announced Friday that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s office “is initiating a review to examine the role and activity of DOJ and its components in preparing for and responding to the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021” in coordination with watchdogs from the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Interior.
The DOJ inspector general inquiry will review “the role of DOJ personnel in responding to the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6” and will examine “relevant” information “available to DOJ and its components in advance” of the storming of the Capitol and “the extent to which such information was shared by DOJ and its components with the U.S. Capitol Police and other federal, state, and local agencies.”
Horowitz’s office will “assess whether there are any weaknesses in DOJ protocols, policies, or procedures that adversely affected the ability of DOJ or its components to prepare effectively for and respond to the events at the U.S. Capitol” and may look into other issues that arise during the investigation too. The watchdog office promised to “take care to ensure that the review does not interfere” with current criminal investigations and prosecutions.
One Justice Department prosecutor told the courts Thursday that last week’s rioting at the Capitol was “a violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States Government” and that “strong evidence … supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials.”
The FBI has come under scrutiny about what it knew of the potential for chaos and violence leading up to the storming of the Capitol.
“In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 rally, the FBI worked internally with every FBI field office to ensure that we were looking for any intelligence that may have developed about potential violence during the rally on Jan. 6,” Steven D’Antuono, the FBI assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, said earlier this week. “We developed some intelligence that a number of individuals were planning to travel to the D.C. area with intentions to cause violence. We immediately shared that information, and action was taken,” D’Antuono said, adding that “other individuals were identified in other parts of the control and their travel subsequently disrupted.” He also pointed to the arrest of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio the Monday before the protest.
D’Antuono said the bureau shared intelligence with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes U.S. Capitol Police, in Washington, D.C., before last Wednesday.
The Defense Department’s investigative arm, led by acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell, who is also the EPA watchdog, also “plans to begin a multidisciplinary review” this month “to determine the DoD’s roles, responsibilities, and actions to prepare for, and respond to, the planned protest and its aftermath at the U.S. Capitol campus” last week, according to Deputy Inspector General Marguerite Garrison, who said Friday that the inquiry would seek to learn “whether there are additional actions required by the DoD to effectively prepare for and respond to security activities at the U.S. Capitol.”
The Pentagon’s watchdog team will seek to answer what was requested of the Pentagon in the lead-up to last week’s violent protest and how the Defense Department responded to those requests, what was requested of the Pentagon during the storming of the Capitol and how the Pentagon reacted, and whether “appropriate actions, supported by requirements, were taken in accordance with laws, regulations, or other applicable guidance.” Garrison wrote that the inquiry would scrutinize a host of Pentagon offices and that the watchdog office “may revise or expand the objective and scope as the review proceeds.”
Trump said that he “immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders,” though numerous reports claimed that he initially resisted sending troops in. On the day of the Capitol siege, the Pentagon said that it had granted Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request from earlier in the week for roughly 340 D.C. National Guardsmen to help local police in preparation for possible protests and that the Defense Department then approved Bowser’s request for a full activation of the National Guard last Wednesday, arguing that “there have been no other requests from the D.C. government.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday that over 100 people had been arrested in connection to last week’s violence and that the bureau had identified more than 200 suspects, saying that “just as we’re doing with our investigation into last week’s violent activities at the Capitol, we’re bringing our aggressive operational capabilities and deep investigative and intelligence expertise to next week’s inauguration.” He said the bureau was “tracking calls for potential armed protests and activity leading up to the inauguration” and added that “the reason I use the word ‘potential’ is because one of the real challenges in this space is trying to distinguish what’s aspirational versus what’s intentional.”
Gen. Daniel Hokanson of the National Guard Bureau said Thursday that “right now, we have approximately 7,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen on the ground in support of the federal lead agency, and we’re building to 21,000 for the upcoming inauguration.”
The Democratic-led House voted Wednesday to impeach President Trump, with the article of impeachment accusing him of inciting an insurrection in connection to the rioters breaching the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers counted electoral votes, which he has denied doing. The final impeachment vote was 232-197, with 10 Republicans voting to impeach the president. The Senate trial will likely not be held until after President-elect Joe Biden takes office later in January.
