Lack of shared intelligence on Jan. 6 protest limited police ability to respond
Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was interviewed on Aug. 10 on X (formerly Twitter) by Tucker Carlson, but little mention of it has been made in the media. Chief Sund has also written a book “Courage under Fire: Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6,” which was published earlier this year.
The book contains what is undoubtedly the most detailed account available of the events in and around the Capitol building on that day as documented by logs in the Capitol Police Command Center. It also contains similarly documented accounts of the Capitol Police interaction with other government agencies in the area. Chief Sund argues convincingly that the primary reason the Capitol Police force was so outnumbered that day was due to inaccurate and insufficient intelligence provided to him prior to the event. The intelligence he received led him to believe the number and actions of the election protesters could be expected to be similar to that of the two earlier large post-election protests in Washington, D.C., in November and December.
Unfortunately, the threat of danger to the Capitol building indicated by the intelligence did not show a critical need to supplement the number of Capitol Police personnel available to confront protesters bent on breaching the building. Out of an abundance of caution, Chief Sund did attempt to get additional personnel from other area agencies, especially from the D.C. National Guard, but the intelligence available was not enough to convince his political bosses to even allow him to request such assistance.
Incredibly, even on Jan. 6 when it became apparent that the Capitol Police were going to be overwhelmed, Chief Sund’s political bosses delayed for over an hour in allowing him to request National Guard back-up. And then, even though the National Guard commander had a large contingent of properly outfitted troops nearby and was eager to make them available, the Pentagon delayed approval for another three hours, so that by the time the National Guard arrived on scene, the emergency was over.
Chief Sund was able to obtain assistance from a number of other police agencies, especially from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, where he had been a deputy chief and commander of their elite Special Operations Division prior to joining the Capitol Police. Although this assistance was not available soon enough in sufficient numbers to prevent the breaching of the Capitol building, it allowed the clearing of the building and the restoring of order. It is interesting to note that because of the bureaucratic delays, a contingent from the New Jersey State Police was on the scene before the nearby National Guard troops were allowed to assist. It’s obvious that had the Capitol Police been augmented in advance with a significant number of National Guard and other area police, the Capitol building would not have been breached nor would have most of the other tragic events of that day occurred. It’s also obvious that Chief Sund’s inability to get such augmentation was due to his not having intelligence available that showed the need for it.
Several entities, including the Pentagon and the DHS, did not share pertinent intelligence as they were supposed to do. Even the leaders of the Capitol Police’s own intelligence organization did not provide Chief Sund all of the relevant information they had. Ironically, when Chief Sund’s immediate resignation was demanded by his political bosses on Jan. 8, the assistant chief responsible for intelligence was named acting chief.
The FBI’S role in Jan. 6 was especially problematic. In the trials of members of groups most involved in the Capitol building breach, it has come out that the FBI had numerous informants embedded in those groups. The FBI certainly knew a breach was being planned, yet they never shared that information. Instead, it appears that FBI handlers used their informants to encourage and facilitate the groups’ plans in an effort to entrap them. Based on the number of convictions, it appears they were successful in that effort but at a terrible cost. And, because it was entrapment, many of the convictions will likely be overturned on appeal.
Carl Brady is a retired engineer who has lived in Frederick for over 18 years.