Stinging report raises questions about Capitol security
WASHINGTON — Shields that shattered upon impact. Weapons too old to use. Missed intelligence in which future insurrectionists warned, “We get our president or we die.”
As Congress pushes for a return to normalcy months after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, a damning internal report about the deadly siege is painting a dire picture of the Capitol Police’s ability to respond to threats against lawmakers.
The Capitol Police have so far refused to publicly release the report — prepared in March and marked as “law enforcement sensitive” but obtained by the Associated Press — despite congressional pressure. The inspector general who prepared it, Michael A. Bolton, was scheduled to testify before the House Administration Committee on Thursday.
Bolton found that the department’s deficiencies were — and remain — widespread: Equipment was old and stored badly; officers didn’t complete required training; and there was a lack of direction at the Civil Disturbance Unit, which exists to ensure that legislative functions of Congress are not disrupted by civil unrest or protest activity. That was exactly what happened when supporters of thenPresident Donald Trump violently pushed past police and broke into the Capitol as Congress counted the Electoral College votes that certified Joe Biden’s victory.
The report also focuses on several pieces of missed intelligence, including an FBI memo sent the day before the insurrection. The memo warned of threatening online postings.
“Get violent … Stop calling
this a march, or rally, or a protest,” read one post recounted in the memo. “Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”
The riot has pushed the
Capitol Police force toward a state of crisis. The acting chief, Yogananda Pittman, received a vote of no confidence from the union in February.
Bolton found that in many cases, department equipment had expired but was not replaced. Some was more than 20 years old.
In other cases, weapons weren’t used because of “orders from leadership,” the document says. Those weapons — called “less lethal” because they are designed to disperse rather than kill — could have helped the police repel the rioters as they moved toward the Capitol after Trump’s speech, according to the report.
The report faults the Civil Disturbance Unit for a lack of preparation.