Internal documents show the U.S. Capitol police were warned of possible attacks on officers ahead of the Jan. 6 riot, but they were more concerned than necessary about leftist counter-protesters.
The newly revealed documents show police got some things right about the protest becoming violent, but none of the five objectives laid out in the 17-page strategy the day before the Electoral College certification worked as police failed to deploy enough defenses against the mob of Donald Trump supporters angry about his election loss, reported Politico.
“At this time there are no specific known threats related to the Joint Session of Congress Electoral College Vote Certification,” the report reads.
“Counter-protestors will be expected to attempt to gain access by entering shrubbery and other natural fixtures,” the report adds. “It is anticipated that a march will likely progress into the Capitol Grounds,” and Washington, D.C., metropolitan police would escort them, while Capitol police would deploy officers to block counter-protesters from entering the march’s route.
Counter-protesters never materialized as a threat during the march from Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally, and the president’s supporters quickly overran police barricades and stormed the Capitol.
“As the Department has said publicly time and time again — we knew some people were planning violence,” said a Capitol Police spokesperson. “No law enforcement or intelligence agency predicted the large-scale attack that ended up happening. Typically, and this is documented in decades of USCP working protests on the Hill, violence occurs between protesters and counterprotesters. That was NOT the only thing our officers were told to focus on. Every year our officers train for many different threat scenarios.”
Police made plans to use plainclothes officers to monitor the protest, but it’s not clear how much intelligence they gathered and one officer who battled rioters outside the Capitol said he never got any warnings before Trump supporters stormed the barricades, and the department defended the controversial tactic.
“Our counter surveillance teams are not undercover,” a Capitol Police spokesperson said in a statement. “What we mean by that is that they do not act as protesters in the crowd. Nor do they infiltrate the crowd. They dress in plain clothes and post up around the city to monitor the crowd. That information is passed onto supervisors.”