U.S. SENATOR: INVESTIGATE INVOLVEMENT OF MILITARY
Actions of current, former members in riot under scrutiny
After news emerged that several of the people who stormed the Capitol last week had served in the military, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois sent a letter to the acting secretary of defense on Monday demanding an investigation to determine the extent of current and former military members’ involvement in the attack.
The senator, a former Army helicopter pilot who was shot down in Iraq, wrote, “Upholding good order and discipline demands that the U.S. Armed Forces root out extremists that infiltrate the military and threaten our national security.” Authorities have identified a number of current and former military members as part of the mob.
Ashli Babbitt, 35, a San Diegan shot dead by a Capitol Police officer on Wednesday, had served in the Air Force security forces for 14 years. Larry Rendell Brock, 53, a Texas man arrested after being photographed wearing tactical gear and holding f lex-cuffs on the Senate f loor, is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
And Emily Rainey, 30, who brought 100 people from North Carolina to the Capitol and posted video from the event, is an active-duty Army captain.
Military regulations bar troops from participating in activities they know “involves an extremist cause.”
Rainey, who is assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, is now under investigation by the Army. She had submitted her resignation in October but was still serving on active duty.
“We are investigating her involvement,” said Maj. Daniel Lessard, a spokesperson for 1st Special Forces Command. “We are trying to determine the facts and if she violated any laws or regulations.”
Rainey told The Associated Press that she was acting within her rights as a private citizen, and that her group did nothing illegal by attending the protest, adding they were peaceful citizens who were doing “nothing but demonstrating our First Amendment rights.” An Army spokesperson said the Army was determining whether other Fort Bragg soldiers went with Rainey to the Capitol.
Rainey was reprimanded in the spring after she posted a video online of her pulling down caution tape at a playground that was closed because of COVID-19 restrictions. That video resulted in “administrative action,” Lessard said, though he would not be more specific. She was set to be fully separated from the military in April.
Some military retirees can be brought back and tried in the military justice system, but it matters when and how they left the service, said Rachel Vanlandingham, a former Air Force attorney who is a professor at the Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles.
Any veteran who retired after 20 or more years of active-duty service can be recalled and put in the military justice system, even for crimes committed after they hung up their uniform, she said. It rarely occurs and is up to the service secretaries to pursue, but it has been used more frequently in recent years, she said. About 2 million retirees are subject to this rule, she said.