The architect of the U.S. Capitol said today that police charged with protecting the facility received no threats in advance of President Joe Biden’s Tuesday State of the Union address that would have justified the erection of a metal fence around the campus.
Brett Blanton told the House Committee on House Administration, however, that House and Senate officials were still recommending added security during the president’s visit and speech, and he decided that the cheapest solution would be a fence.
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Blanton said that U.S. Capitol Police had recommended “three layers” of bike racks around the Capitol and more staff, and he figured that would be more expensive.
“It’s going to be cheaper to put the fence up and have less people,” he told the subcommittee. He said the price of erecting and then dismantling the fence was $872,000 and that the U.S. Secret Service was paying the bill.
While he said there was “no actionable intelligence” suggesting a threat to the building or Biden, concerns linger since the mob riots on Jan. 6, 2021, which he also said arrived with no prior threats or warnings.
When pressed by Florida Republican Rep. Laurel Lee about the lack of threats before the president’s annual address, Blanton said, “That is correct, and also on Jan. 6 there was no specific threat as well.”
There have been conflicting reports about what Capitol officials knew before the Jan. 6 protests and if any threats were forwarded to officials in charge of security on the day President Joe Biden’s election victory over former President Donald Trump was certified.
Blanton, who said the lack of any threat intelligence made him feel comfortable enough not to work from the Capitol on Jan. 6, left no question that he knew of no threats to the building that day.
Asked about his absence from the campus that day, he said, “There was no actionable intelligence that there was going to be anything here that was presented to the Capitol Police Board.”
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On that day, hundreds of protesters, some of whom attended a pro-Trump rally near the White House, stormed the Capitol. Over 800 have been charged for their involvement, and one protester, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed trying to enter the Speaker’s Lobby behind the House chamber.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), chairman committee that oversees the police and architect’s office, took interest in Blanton’s comments about there being no “actionable intelligence” before the Jan. 6 riots and promised to look into them.
