A new bipartisan Senate report on the Capitol riot contends that seven individuals, including three police officers, “ultimately lost their lives” as a result of the siege on Jan. 6, as the investigation concluded the Capitol Police, intelligence agencies, and the National Guard all suffered breakdowns.
The report also contends that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was attacked with bear spray, despite prosecutors telling a federal judge that they believe he was instead only hit with pepper spray.
The 99-page, bipartisan inquiry, Examining the U.S. Capitol Attack: A Review of the Security, Planning, and Response Failures on January 6, was released by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters and Republican Sen. Rob Portman of the Homeland Security Committee and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of the Rules Committee, laying out the “security, planning, and response failures related to the violent and unprecedented attack on January 6th.”
“Rioters, attempting to disrupt the Joint Session of Congress, broke into the Capitol building, vandalized and stole property, and ransacked offices. They attacked members of law enforcement and threatened the safety and lives of our nation’s elected leaders,” the Senate report stated. “Tragically, seven individuals, including three law enforcement officers, ultimately lost their lives.”
Capitol Police announced Sicknick, 42, died on Jan. 7, one day after rioters broke into the Capitol as lawmakers counted electoral votes to affirm President Joe Biden‘s victory over former President Donald Trump.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, led by Francisco Diaz, told the Washington Examiner in April that Sicknick’s “cause of death” was “acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis” (a stroke), and the “manner of death” was “natural.” The medical examiner said Sicknick was sprayed with a chemical substance at about 2:20 p.m. on Jan. 6, collapsed at the Capitol at about 10 p.m., and was transported by emergency services to a local hospital. He died at about 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 7. Diaz told the Washington Post that Sicknick died after suffering two strokes, did not suffer an allergic reaction to chemical irritants, and bore no evidence of either external or internal injuries, but he contended that “all that transpired played a role in his condition.“
The medical examiner’s office noted that the term “natural” is “used when a disease alone causes death” and “if death is hastened by an injury, the manner of death is not considered natural.”
In the days following the Capitol riot, Metropolitan Police officer Jeffrey Smith and Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood both died by suicide, and the families of those officers want their deaths to be recognized as in the “line of duty.”
“Three officers lost their lives following the attack,” the new Senate report again contended. “USCP Officer Brian Sicknick, a 13-year veteran and member of the First Responder Unit, was stationed on the West Front of the Capitol, where rioters attacked him with bear spray. Officer Sicknick passed away at 9:30 p.m. on January 7. Officer Howard Liebengood, a 16-year veteran of USCP, died on January 9. Officer Jeffrey Smith, a 12-year veteran of MPD, died on January 15.”
To make their claim that Sicknick was attacked with bear spray, the senators cited a March article from the New York Times, but despite DOJ press releases and court documents hinting that bear spray was used against Sicknick, prosecutors have since walked this back.
PSAKI CLAIMS ‘A NUMBER OF OFFICERS’ DIED THE DAY OF THE CAPITOL RIOT
Julian Elie Khater and George Pierre Tanios were charged in March with coordinating to assault Sicknick and two other officers with a chemical spray, although the men were not accused of murdering Sicknick and have not been charged in connection with his death. Tanios purchased two canisters of bear spray in West Virginia on Jan. 5, but prosecutors admitted it looks like Khater only used pepper spray the next day. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gilead Light told the judge in April that “it does appear the bear spray that Mr. Khater was holding 10 minutes earlier was not used.”
The Senate report focused mostly on “a number of intelligence and security failures leading up to and on January 6 that allowed for the breach of the Capitol” and concluded that “these breakdowns ranged from federal intelligence agencies failing to warn of a potential for violence to a lack of planning and preparation by USCP and law enforcement leadership.” The senators said, “Despite online calls for violence at the Capitol, neither the FBI nor DHS issued a threat assessment or intelligence bulletin warning law enforcement entities in the National Capital Region of the potential for violence. FBI and DHS officials stressed the difficulty in discerning constitutionally protected free speech versus actionable, credible threats of violence.”
The Capitol Police’s Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division also “was aware of the potential for violence” and “received information from a variety of sources about threats of violence focused on the Joint Session and the Capitol Complex and the large crowds expected to gather,” yet it “failed to fully incorporate this information into all of its internal assessments,” and so “critical information regarding threats of violence was not shared with USCP’s own officers and other law enforcement partners.” The senators said that Capitol Police were also “not adequately prepared to prevent or respond to the January 6 security threats, which contributed to the breach of the Capitol.”
The Senate investigation also concluded that “opaque processes and a lack of emergency authority delayed requests for National Guard assistance” and that “the intelligence failures, coupled with the Capitol Police Board’s failure to request National Guard assistance prior to January 6, meant DCNG was not activated, staged, and prepared to quickly respond to an attack on the Capitol.” The senators said, “As the attack unfolded, DOD required time to approve the request and gather, equip, and instruct its personnel on the mission, which resulted in additional delays. … DCNG began arriving at the Capitol Complex at 5:20 p.m.— nearly three hours after DOD received USCP’s request for assistance and more than four hours after the barriers at the Capitol were first breached.”
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The Justice Department investigation has often pointed to violence conducted against officers by rioters and has focused on actions taken by members of groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, many of whom it has hit with conspiracy charges. Over the weekend, the Justice Department said that it had arrested 465 defendants so far, charging 130 people with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, with more than 40 alleged rioters charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to police.
