Jan. 6 delay blamed on ‘unusual’ directive
DC Guard chief tells senators of ‘unusual’ directive day of siege
Defense Department leaders placed unusual restrictions on the National Guard for the day of the Capitol riot and delayed sending help for hours despite an urgent plea from police for reinforcement, according to testimony Wednesday.
WASHINGTON — Defense Department leaders placed unusual restrictions on the National Guard for the day of the Capitol riot and delayed sending help for hours despite an urgent plea from police for reinforcement, according to testimony Wednesday that added to the finger-pointing about the government response.
Maj. Gen. William Walker, commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, told senators that the then-chief of the Capitol Police requested military support in a “voice cracking with emotion” in a 1:49 p.m. call as rioters began pushing toward the Capitol. Walker said he immediately relayed the request to the Army but did not learn until 5:08 p.m. that the Defense Department had approved it.
National Guard troops who had been waiting on buses were then rushed to the Capitol, arriving in 18 minutes, Walker said.
The hourslong delay cost the National Guard precious minutes in the early hours of the deadly rioting, with Walker saying he could have gotten personnel into the building within 20 minutes of getting approval. As it stood, the support did not happen until the evening. The delay stood in contrast to the swift authorization for National Guard support that Walker said was granted in response to the civil unrest
that roiled Washington last June as an outgrowth of racial justice protests.
A senior Pentagon official who testified, Robert Salesses, said it took time for the Army to sort out what the National Guard was being asked to do and what its support might look like, especially since the Capitol Police days earlier had not asked for any help. Mindful of criticism that the response to the demonstrations last spring was heavyhanded, military officials were also concerned about the optics of a substantial National Guard presence at the Capitol, and that such visuals could inflame the
rioters, Walker said.
“The Army senior leadership” expressed “that it would not be their best military advice to have uniformed Guardsmen on the Capitol,” Walker said.
The Senate hearing is the latest about the missed intelligence and botched efforts to quickly gather National Guard troops as a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters laid siege to the Capitol. Taken together, the hearings have spelled out the challenge law enforcement officials face in sorting through an ocean of unverified tips but also highlighted how police inadequately prepared for
the Trump loyalists; that FBI warnings about the threat of violence did not reach top police officials; and that requests for aid were not promptly answered.
“We in the FBI want to bat (1 thousand) and we want to not have this ever happen again,” said Jill Sanborn, the bureau’s top counterterrorism official and one of the witnesses. “So we’re asking ourselves exactly the questions that you’re asking: Is there a place we could have collected more (intelligence)? Is there something we could have done?”
Meanwhile, the Capitol Police disclosed the existence of intelligence of a
“possible plot” by a militia group to breach the Capitol on Thursday. The revelation differed from an earlier advisory from the House sergeant-at-arms that said police had no indication that any such violence was planned.
Much of the focus at Wednesday’s Senate hearing was on communications between the National Guard and the Defense Department.
Walker described an “unusual” directive that required Pentagon approval before deploying a 40-member “quick reaction force” and before relocating personnel from one traffic intersection to another.
As chaos escalated Jan. 6, then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund asked him for National Guard help in a frantic call and then again on a call with Army officials, who said they did not “think that it looked good” to have a military presence.
“The response to the request took too long, so I think there needs to be a study done to make sure that never happens again,” Walker said.
That account was consistent with the recollection of Robert Contee, the acting chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department, who told senators at a hearing last week that he was “stunned” over the delayed response.
Contee said Sund was pleading with Army officials to deploy National Guard troops as the rioting escalated.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said during a break in the hearing that senators “certainly will have questions” for former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller and for former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy.
“Whether that’s going to require testimony or not, I don’t know, but it’s definitely going to require an opportunity to ask them questions about their view, from their perspective, of why this decision-making process went so horribly wrong,” Blunt said.
Salesses stressed that military officials were concerned about responding forcefully to civil disturbance in light of what happened last spring, “where we had helicopters flying above U.S. citizens, we had spy planes flying over folks who were protesting.”
TOKYO — Two Americans suspected of helping former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn skip bail and escape to Lebanon in December 2019 have been extradited to Japan.
Michael Taylor and his son Peter had been held in a suburban Boston jail since May. They were handed over to Japanese custody Monday and arrived Tuesday in Tokyo.
Ghosn, who led Nissan Motor Co. for more than two decades, was arrested in 2018 and charged with underreporting his future compensation and breach of trust in diverting Nissan money for personal gain.
Ghosn maintains that he is innocent.
What are the father and son accused of doing?
Michael Taylor, with the help of another man, George-Antoine Zayek, hid Ghosn in a large black box supposedly containing audio equipment, according to authorities. The box passed through airport security in Osaka, Japan, and was loaded onto a private jet that flew Ghosn to Turkey. Peter Taylor is accused of meeting with Ghosn and helping his father carry out the escape. Authorities say the Taylors were paid at least $1.3 million.
Where will they be taken and what happens there?
The Taylors, like other suspects, can be held up to 23 days without any formal charges at the Tokyo Detention Center on the outskirts of the capital and questioned for hours almost daily by prosecutors, without a lawyer present. Their lawyer can visit and they can receive snacks and books. The detention can be extended with “rearrests,” if more charges
are tagged on. Ghosn spent more than 100 days at the center before gaining his release on bail.
Is this the routine treatment of suspects in Japan?
The Japanese treatment of suspects has been widely criticized as “hostage justice,” designed to coerce suspects to confess and often resulting in false confessions. The Taylors’ lawyers in the U.S. say they worry they may be treated unfairly in Japan and subjected to “mental and physical torture.” They also argue that jumping bail is not a crime under Japanese law. That is technically accurate, but most people who escape are easily caught in Japan.
What can be expected if they go on trial?
Even after formal charges are filed, closed-door pretrial sessions by the prosecutors and defendants before a judge generally go on for months. The media have no access to such sessions. Jury trials exist in Japan, but only for murders
and other heinous crimes. A panel of three judges will hear the Taylors’ case in a trial that could last months or even years. Media coverage is allowed, but no filming or recording. If convicted, the Taylors face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $2,900. In principle, just as in the U.S., people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. But 99% of criminal trials end in convictions.
Where is Ghosn and can he be tried?
Japan has put Ghosn on Interpol’s wanted list, but Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan. Extradition from the U.S. isn’t common, so the extradition of the Taylors for an alleged nonviolent crime reflects the determination of Japanese prosecutors to pursue the case against Ghosn. Ghosn is almost certain to be extradited if he sets foot in the U.S. Former Nissan senior executive Greg Kelly is on trial in Tokyo on charges he helped underreport Ghosn’s compensation. Kelly, an American, says he is innocent.
NEW YORK — If you’ve been watching experts and commentators appearing on television from their homes, their increased attention to decor might look familiar: In the early days of lockdown, they, like many of us, sat in front of blank white walls, while now their homes frequently display prominent artwork.
“Cinderella has nothing on these people,” said Claude Taylor, who created the Room Rater Twitter account with his fiancee, Jessie Bahrey. “I don’t think art is even something people thought of in April.”
Room Rater scores speakers’ setups on a 10-point scale for details like lighting and camera level. Good artwork can boost a score. For example, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson scored a 10/ 10 for appearing on Morning Joe in front of artwork by his wife, Avis Robison.
It seems many Americans who are stuck staring at their walls have decided the pandemic gives them a good reason to pretty them up.
My first hint at an uptick in art spending came last summer. When businesses shuttered and laid off employees in March, we braced for my artist husband’s sales to plummet. For a while they did. But then, his numbers didn’t just return to normal. They spiked.
I thought it might be an anomaly. My husband, John Tebeau, illustrates beloved bars; maybe people were buying his bar art because they missed their favorite watering holes?
But then friends who work at a framing shop said they were as busy last fall as at Christmas. Artists we know said they, too, were selling more than usual.
Online arts marketplace Etsy confirmed the trend. Comparing MarchDecember 2020 to the same nine months in 2019, Etsy reported:
A 95% increase in searches for wall art.
An 80% increase in searches for stained glass window or wall hangings.
A 46% increase in searches for sculptures.
Etsy doesn’t release data on actual sales. It’s fair to assume at least some of those searches were daydreams that never led to purchases, if my own time scrolling through listings for upstate houses I have no intention of buying is any indication.
Adobe Analytics does track purchases online, and
those numbers are even more dramatic: Average daily sales of “art goods,” which includes sculptures, artworks and frames, increased 134% between the pre-COVID-19 months of 2020 and last fall. Comparing September and October 2019 to the same two months in 2020, average online daily sales
increased 109%. Adobe’s analysis of e-commerce sales includes 80 of the 100 largest online retailers in the U.S.
Atiba T. Edwards has just the combination of experience to explain what’s happening. He worked in banking for several years and is also the co-founder of the arts nonprofit
Daily Southtown
FOKUS, which offers arts education, hosts art events and publishes an online magazine.
Edwards noted that many people who kept working during the lockdown suddenly weren’t spending money on travel, going out to restaurants or movies, or getting babysitters. They were probably home more than ever before, so they might have redirected some of that discretionary income to art.
Edwards is an example himself. He loves and appreciates art, but in the before times, he left his Brooklyn apartment early in the morning, went to work as chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, then got home late after coaching basketball or going to an art event. Now he works more at home and misses seeing art at work and elsewhere.
“I have hung six pieces in the last three months,” he said. “People are seeing the benefit of surrounding themselves with beauty.”
Edwards has worked with hundreds of artists as executive director of FOKUS, trying to create accessible art experiences in nontraditional spaces. He believes the traditional art show or gallery experience feels intimidating to someone who doesn’t feel knowledgeable about art, while social media algorithms can serve up artists to peruse with no pressure to buy.
“The newcomer can look at art at home and not have the feeling of it being unwelcoming,” he said.
Higher unemployment rates caused by the pandemic mean many people, of course, don’t have the money to buy art now.
But for some of those still working, buying art can also be an attempt to help support others.
“I had people reaching out to buy a piece of art to save my gallery,” said Eden Stein, owner of Secession Art and Design in San Francisco, which sells the works of about 70 creators. “That money not only supported my family, it supported the artists and their communities.”
Stein said making art sales during the pandemic has felt a little like a wedding reception: She has reconnected with friends and clients from throughout the gallery’s 13-year history.
Typically, Stein would host two or three events a month, while foot traffic to nearby restaurants and a music venue next door would also bring in new visitors. Instead, for the last year, she’s talked to many buyers by phone or arranged visits by appointment.
“This year has been really personal.” Stein said. “If you can’t hug people, selling a piece of artwork feels a little like that.”