(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Whistleblowers from the DC National Guard will testify to Congress on Wednesday about how military officials prevented them from promptly responding to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising.
The House Administration Committee recently posted a notice of the hearing, which is titled, Three Years Later: D.C. National Guard Whistleblowers Speak Out on January 6 Delay. According to an exclusive from the Daily Mail, the whistleblowers will tell Congress that Donald Trump wanted them deployed during the Capitol riot, and that the Army delayed telling them to mobilize.
“The hearing will aim to further prove that Acting Defense Secretary at the time Christopher Miller did give advance approval of D.C. National Guard deployment at the direction of then-President Donald Trump,” the Daily Mail reported Friday.
“A person familiar with the review by the House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee said the whistleblowers will provide testimony that then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy delayed by at least two hours providing official notice to D.C. National Guard Commander William Walker to deploy troops to the Capitol.”
The impending congressional hearing follows a transcript from the anti-Trump Jan. 6 Committee being released last month by House Republicans, showing that Trump demanded the National Guard deploy at least 10,000 men to the Capitol.
Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato told the Jan. 6 Committee about his recollections of discussions within the White House regarding this potential deployment. Regrettably for Trump, Ornato’s testimony remained unreleased for years.
According to the transcript, Ornato recounted that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows explicitly offered D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser the National Guard deployment.
“‘[Trump is] willing to ask for 10,000,’” Ornato informed the Jan. 6 Committee, quoting Meadows’s conversation with Bowser. However, Bowser declined the offer, insisting on deploying only a few hundred individuals.
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and DC National Guard leader Maj. Gen. Walker have also reportedlysaid that Army Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt (ret.), who was Army Staff Director on Jan. 6, delayed or ignored Sund’s request for National Guard support.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
