MILITARY, POLICE LINKS PROBED IN CAPITOL RIOT
Investigators concerned some in mob may have offered specialized skills
As thousands of armed National Guard troops travel to Washington to bolster security for next week’s inaugural celebration, federal investigators turned their attention to the difficult question of how many military and police personnel took part in the violent attack on the Capitol, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
Adding to the tensions, dozens of people on a terrorist watchlist were found to have been in Washington on Jan. 6 for pro-Trump events that ultimately devolved into the assault on the Capitol, according to two government officials briefed on the Justice Department investigation into the riot.
Most were suspected White supremacists, according to The Washington Post, which earlier reported on their status on the list. It was not clear how many people on the watchlist were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol, but their presence in the capital adds to the urgent questions about security preparations for Jan. 6 events.
The nationwide dragnet for those responsible for the worst incursion on the home of Congress since the War of 1812 has now entered its second week, and investigators are increasingly concerned that some of the attackers may have brought specialized skills to bear on the assault. So far, two offduty police officers from a small town in Virginia and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas are among the suspects with police or military links — a fraction of the more than 100 people who have been taken into federal custody.
Still, videos and photos posted online have shown chilling scenes of rioters in tactical gear moving through the chaos inside the Capitol complex in tight formation and sometimes using hand signals to communicate with one another. Investigators are eager to determine whether any of these plotters were working together or had ties
to law enforcement or the military.
The Pentagon was sufficiently concerned that members of the military might have taken part in the attack — or at least supported it — that the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued an unusual message to all military personnel this week, reminding them that President-elect Joe Biden would soon be their commander in chief and that they were duty bound to defend the Constitution.
The Defense Department declined Thursday to directly address whether any members of the military were in fact involved in the assault.
“We in the Department of Defense are doing everything we can to eliminate extremism,” said Garry Reid, the Pentagon’s director for defense intelligence. Reid added that all members of the military, including those in the National Guard, undergo extensive screening for participation in hate groups and militias.
Federal officials have already concluded that the swearing-in next week of Biden is a likely target for armed extremists and are expected to flood Washington with more than 20,000 National Guard members from 13 states.
The Secret Service, which is leading the effort to secure the ceremony, announced Thursday that it would establish a “green zone” in downtown Washington this weekend, shutting down traffic and train stations as troops continue to flood into the increasingly militarized city. In a statement, the Secret Service added that most of the streets around the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol would be closed from Saturday morning until the day after the inauguration.
And Customs and Border Protection planned to deploy aircraft to Washington to conduct surveillance over the inauguration, the agency said in a statement. Agents on the ground can watch video footage of the event in real time to spot potential threats.
Such preparations and precautions were necessary because the FBI had picked up “an extensive amount of concerning online chatter” and was trying to discern between “aspirational” plots and actual threats, the bureau’s director, Christopher Wray, said in a televised briefing with Vice President Mike Pence. Wray said the scores of arrests already made in last week’s riot — and the fact that agents have identified about 200 suspects altogether — should “serve as a very stern warning to anyone else who might be inclined” to return to Washington to commit more violence.
“We know who you are, if you’re out there, and FBI agents are coming to find you,” Wray said, adding, “Anyone who plots or attempts violence in the coming week should count on a visit.”
On Thursday alone, federal prosecutors unsealed charges against 12 defendants across the country, including one man who was captured last week in a viral image carrying a Confederate battle f lag through a hallway of the Capitol.
Even as they pursued new leads and suspects, federal investigators also sought to verify an incendiary charge raised this week by several lawmakers: that some members of Congress had helped coordinate the attack.
On Wednesday, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a New Jersey Democrat and a former Navy pilot, called for an investigation, with more than 30 of her colleagues, into what they described as “suspicious” visits by outside groups to the Capitol on the day before the riot at a time when most tours were restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, another lawmaker, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., said she had personally witnessed a tour of the building before the Jan. 6 attack by people who were “Trump supporters.”
A law enforcement official said investigators had yet to discover any evidence that members of Congress were involved in helping plan the attack, and cautioned that the inquiry was vast and that all leads needed to be carefully vetted.
The flurry of arrests and investigations added an air of nervous activity to a city that already seemed to be under siege. The area around the National Mall on Thursday was crammed with military vehicles and cut off from its surroundings by imposing lengths of metal fencing, creating what the Secret Service agent in charge of inaugural security called “a bubble that is safe and secure.”
As of Thursday afternoon, about 7,000 National Guard troops were in Washington, a number that was expected to rise to more than 20,000 by the time of Biden’s inauguration.
That, officials said, was roughly three times the total number of American troops deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.
Also Thursday, several airlines announced they are stepping up security before the inauguration, with Delta Air Lines and others saying they will prohibit passengers flying to the Washington area from putting guns in checked bags.
Delta was the first to announce the ban, which was followed later in the day by United, Alaska, American and Southwest. All said their bans will start Saturday and run through Inauguration Day until Jan. 23.
The airlines also announced other measures. American Airlines is bringing back a ban on serving alcohol on flights to and from the Washington area — flights go dry starting Saturday through next Thursday. Several airlines are moving crews out of downtown Washington hotels for their safety.
Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration announced it will raise enforcement of rules against interfering with or assaulting airline crew members or other passengers.
Key lawmakers and the head of the nation’s largest union of flight attendants have asked the FBI to place Capitol rioters on the federal no-fly list.