Chief: Intel didn’t match riot’s size
Assault on Capitol called much larger than cops expected
WASHINGTON — The acting U.S. Capitol Police chief was pressed to explain Thursday why the agency hadn’t been prepared to fend off a violent mob of insurrectionists, including white supremacists, who were trying to halt the certification of the presidential election last month, even though officials had compelling advance intelligence.
Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman also made the disturbing revelation that plans to “blow up” the U.S. Capitol during President Joe Biden’s yet-to-be scheduled State of the Union address in hopes of killing as many members of Congress “as possible” remains a credible threat.
“We know members of the militia groups that were present on Jan. 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union,” said Pittman, who took over as chief after her predecessor, Steven Sund, resigned in the immediate aftermath of the assault on the Capitol.
Pittman said intelligence agents have come across the threats of mass violence in chatter on encrypted internet forums, underscoring that the prospect of more far-right attacks is of key concern to U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Regarding the Capitol breach, Pittman denied that law enforcement failed to take seriously warnings of violence before the Jan. 6 insurrection. Three days before the riot, Capitol Police distributed an internal document warning that armed extremists were poised for violence and could attack Congress because they saw it as the last chance to try to overturn the election results, she said.
But the assault was much bigger than they expected, she said.
“There was no such intelligence. Although we knew the likelihood for violence by extremists, no credible threat indicated that tens of thousands would attack the U.S. Capitol, nor did the intelligence received from the FBI or any other law enforcement partner indicate such a threat.”
Later, under questioning by the House subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Tim Ryan, Pittman said that while there may have been thousands of people heading to the Capitol from a pro-Trump rally, about 800 people actually made their way into the building.
Pittman conceded that the agency’s incident command protocols were “not adhered to,” and that there was a “multitiered failure.”
Officers were left without proper communication or strong guidance from their supervisors as the insurrectionist mob stormed into the building.
The panel’s top Republican, Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, said the top Capitol Police officials “either failed to take seriously the intelligence received or the intelligence failed to reach the right people.”
Sund testified earlier this week that police expected an enraged but more typical protest crowd. But Pittman said intelligence collected before the riot prompted police to take extraordinary measures, including the special arming of officers, intercepting radio frequencies used by the invaders and deploying spies at the Ellipse rally where Trump was sending his supporters marching to the Capitol to “fight like hell.
On Jan. 3, Capitol Police distributed an internal intelligence assessment warning that militia members, white supremacists and other extremist groups were likely to participate, that demonstrators would be armed and that it was possible they would come to the Capitol to try to disrupt the vote, according to Pittman.
But at the same time, she said police didn’t have enough intelligence to predict the violent insurrection that resulted in five deaths, including that of a Capitol Police officer. They prepared for trouble but not an invasion.
“Although the Department’s January 3rd Special Assessment foretold of a significant likelihood for violence on Capitol grounds by extremists groups, it did not identify a specific credible threat indicating that thousands of American citizens would descend upon the U.S. Capitol attacking police officers with the goal of breaking into the U.S. Capitol Building to harm Members and prevent the certification of Electoral College votes,” Pittman said.
On Tuesday, Sund testified that the intelligence assessment warned white supremacists, members of the far-right Proud Boys and leftist antifa were expected to be in the crowd and might become violent.
“We had planned for the possibility of violence, the possibility of some people being armed, not the possibility of a coordinated military style attack involving thousands against the Capitol,” Sund said.
The FBI also forwarded a warning to local law enforcement officials about online postings that a “war” was coming. But Pittman said it still wasn’t enough to prepare for the mob that attacked the Capitol.
Pittman also said the department faced “internal challenges” as it responded to the riot. Officers didn’t properly lock down the Capitol complex, even after an order had been given over the radio to do so.
New banners hang over RavensWalk and on the side of M&T Bank Stadium. A check-in tent has replaced the metal detectors. And when you take the escalator or elevator up to the club level, pharmacists, not bartenders, staff the bar in the middle.
The Ravens stadium, Maryland’s third state-run mass COVID-19 vaccination site, opened Thursday, offering just 250 doses by appointment at 74 clublevel vaccination stations. The site has 500 doses a day scheduled for this weekend, could begin offering as many as 2,000 a day next week, and has the capacity to give 10,000 per day as Maryland’s vaccine supply from the federal government increases.
Gov. Larry Hogan, who toured the stadium clinic Thursday, said he hopes the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be approved Friday, expanding vaccine availability nationwide. The Republican governor did not specify how much of Maryland’s share would go to the stadium, or whether any would be reserved for city residents, as Democratic Mayor Brandon Scott has requested.
“We should start seeing those doses arrive in our state next week, which is tremendously exciting,” Hogan said. “It’s going to add to the arsenal to go after this virus. We are going to be figuring out exactly how many we are getting, and then determine with our team where those additional doses are going to go. But they’re going to go in somebody’s arm as fast as we can get them in there.”
The 55,000-square-foot mass vaccination center isn’t on the football field, but it will bring people to an area of the stadium most don’t get to visit: the club level.
Mahua Deb said she was the first to get a vaccine at the stadium on the mass vaccination clinic’s first day. It was also her first visit to the football stadium.
Deb, 43, a Food and Drug Administration consumer safety officer who lives in Ellicott City, moved from Michigan last year.
“The pandemic started so we didn’t get to explore Maryland that much,” she said.
Deb described an organized identification check, vaccination and post-shot observation process. She showed up early and was finished more than a halfhour before her appointment.
“Everything was very, very organized,” Deb said. “I would encourage people to come . ... There’s a lot of hard workers there.”
The stadium site offers walk-up vaccine registrations, although not sameday shots, for people who don’t have computers or are otherwise having difficulty getting appointments. To request an appointment, call 855-MD-GoVAX (855634-6829).
Hogan said the stadium, which has a light rail stop, will improve access for people who don’t have a car — part of the state’s efforts to make the rollout more equitable amid a significant race disparity in the state’s initial vaccinations. White Marylanders are receiving four times as many vaccines as Black residents, according to the latest data released by the state.
But the governor noted that it is the state’s second mass vaccination site in the city. The other two state-run sites are at the nearby Baltimore Convention Center downtown and Six Flags America in Prince George’s County.
“As of last week, Baltimore City had gotten far more than they were really entitled to,” Hogan said.
After parking in Lot C, people with appointments passed under the massive “VACCINATION SITE” banner at the RavensWalk and proceeded to the check-in tent just inside Gate A.
Don and Eileen Kunkoski, who live in Reisterstown, had been on four separate lists for other vaccination sites since mid-January without getting an appointment.
They managed to schedule appointments for Monday at the stadium after waiting two hours on the phone.
Don Kunkoski, 77, who is retired from the Environmental Protection Agency, came to check out the site’s accessibility in advance of the appointment for Eileen, 74, who he said doesn’t get around well.
He was impressed by the separate, accessible entrance and exit with an elevator at the Northwest Suite Entrance. Others took the escalator and the steps, entering at Gate A and exiting at the Northeast Suite
Entrance.
“They’re ready to go,” Kunkoski said. “It looks very well organized.”
Banners between the Johnny Unitas and Ray Lewis statues instructed people to notify staff of any symptoms in the past 48 hours, any exposure or concerns about exposure, and any pending COVID-19 tests.
Carol and Rob Vatalaro, both 72, who live in Columbia, thought the process required more identification checks than necessary, given that they already had appointments. They checked in online, then at the tent at Gate A, then a third time on the club level.
“Other than that, it was fine. They were very organized,” Carol Vatalaro said. “They had the stations set up all around this big bar. I said, ‘Well, where’s the beer and wine?’ ”
The University of Maryland Medical System, which is running the site for the state, has plenty of staff on hand, said Rob Vatalaro, a retired National Security Agency engineer.
“They’re just overrunning with people,” he said.
He wore a sailboat mask and an “I GOT VACCINATED” sticker on his coat. The Vatalaros got their appointments over the phone Monday, the first day they became available at the stadium. They’d tried unsuccessfully to get vaccines at several other clinics, he said.
“I waited for Monday morning, and I just got lucky,” he said. “I did it on the phone. The computers weren’t working.”
Dr. Mohan Suntha, president and CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System, said the stadium vaccination site represented the “latest example of partnership” between the state and the regional hospital system.
“This is a step in a big process to ensure we create solutions that allow for our communities to be vaccinated,” he said. “We are excited to get this launched.”
The site is aiming to schedule 2,000 appointments per day beginning next Thursday, said Lt. Col. Charles Wetzelberger, deputy site coordinator with the Maryland Air National Guard, who supervises the guardsmen who helped set it up.
You can’t see the field from where you sit for a shot, said Wetzelberger, who is a Ravens season ticket holder. But the clinic has a “cool vibe,” especially for people who haven’t seen the club level before, he said.
“It was a barren club section in a stadium that hasn’t been used in a year [except for] a smattering of fans,” Wetzelberger said. “We were able to transform this into a mass vax site.”
During his tour Thursday, Hogan said he thought the club-level clinic looked beautiful.
“It looks like you’re there to watch a Ravens game,” Hogan said. “I said I was a little disappointed you couldn’t get a hot dog and a beer, but they’re doing a great job of getting vaccines done.”