I’m looking forward to purchasing the official House report on the Jan. 6 insurrection. It would not be the first time in my lifetime such a report was necessary.
Just Security on Tuesday offered an expanded explanation for the military’s hours-long delay in deploying the National Guard to put down the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Officials worried that the outgoing president might with a tweet repurpose the troops to support the insurrection and stop certification of Joe Biden’s win (and Donald Trump’s loss).
The delay was not just about the optics of or bureaucratic bungling of any troop deployment:
According to a report released last month, Christopher Miller, who served as acting Secretary of the Defense on Jan. 6, told the Department’s inspector general that he feared “if we put U.S. military personnel on the Capitol, I would have created the greatest Constitutional crisis probably since the Civil War.” In congressional testimony, he said he was also cognizant of “fears that the President would invoke the Insurrection Act to politicize the military in an anti-democratic manner” and that “factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our Armed Forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification.”
“General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as former CIA Director and at the time Secretary of State Mike Pompeo” feared that with troops in place Donald Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act to shut down congressional counting of electoral votes.
The top officials’ fears were warranted: Donald Trump, his close aides and a segment of Republican political figures had openly discussed the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act or using the military to prevent the transfer of power on the basis of false claims that the election was “stolen.” But the Pentagon’s actions with respect to the National Guard suggest a scenario in which, on the basis of such concerns, a potentially profound crisis of command may have played out on Jan. 6.
Close observers of the events of Jan. 6 have mainly posited two reasons for the delay in mobilizing the Guard. The first explanation is one of bureaucratic failures or managerial weaknesses in the military’s procedures that day. A second explanation is that the military was deliberately serving Trump’s effort to interfere with the election by withholding assistance.
We identify a third explanation: that senior military officials constrained the mobilization and deployment of the National Guard to avoid injecting federal troops that could have been re-missioned by the President to advance his attempt to hold onto power.
Obi-Wan Kenobi wanted to avoid “any Imperial entanglements.” Milley wanted to avoid a Trumpish “Reichstag moment.” Make that Trumpstag moment. Donald plasters his name on everything.
Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix add:
What was at stake was the prospect of an illegal order from the President and thwarting a potential scheme to undermine the peaceful transfer of power. Ultimately, the outcome of the Pentagon’s decisions may have been best for the nation, even if it extended the period of time during which Congress was in harm’s way.
The report provides multiple citations in which Trump toyed with invoking the Insurrection Act as a tool for quelling street protests over police violence and/or for demonstrating his power. Trump and multiple supporters in his orbit reinforced the idea of invoking martial law should he lose the election.
Those events plus post-election personnel changes at the Pentagon added fuel to rumors that Trump might be putting loyalists in place to carry out orders for a military deployment to keep himself in power.
Adding to the Pentagon’s concerns is the revelation from a Jan. 5 email sent by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that “said that the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro Trump people’ and that many more would be available on standby.”
A clash between counter-protesters and Trump supporters on Jan. 6 could have been the trigger Trump’s stubby finger was itching to pull to invoke some form of martial law. But counter-protesters largely stayed away.
Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix conclude with the hope that there should be a complete compilation of the events of Jan. 6, and the actions and thoughts of the major players:
It is important for many reasons to get to the truth of what happened inside the Department of Defense in the runup to and on Jan. 6. One reason is to ensure accountability of those most responsible for the attempt to interfere with the transfer of power.
In the absence of such clarity, Trump recently highlighted his having told Miller to prepare 10,000 troops for Jan. 6 – as though such an account would be exculpatory for the former president. In his “History Tour” with conservative media personality Bill O’Reilly earlier this month, Trump said, “I asked the Secretary of Defense, I said, I think you should recommend to Nancy Pelosi and to Congress, because they are the ones that control it, I would like to recommend 10,000 National Guardsmen.” (The side reference to Pelosi has been well and repeatedly debunked.) “That undercuts the entire premise that Donald Trump instigated the Capitol attacks,” said O’Reilly in a subsequent video production.
It would be a cruel and strange twist if the mystery about actions taken by senior Pentagon officials to avoid Trump’s use of the military in his bid to hang onto power became a cornerstone of Trump’s defense for his actions that day.
The House Jan. 6 panel plans weeks of public hearings on the events of that day. In the end, there should be a full report published. Failure to do so will allow Trump and MAGA-world to write one instead, even if not in print.
Matthew Greene, 34, of Syracuse on Wednesday became the first Proud Boy member to plead guilty to “obstructing Congress and conspiring to obstruct law enforcement.” According to court accounts, he pushed past police lines during the Jan. 6 riot but never entered the Capitol building. Greene helped program handheld radios for the Proud Boys the night before:
After the riot, Greene bragged that “we took the capital,” and then ordered over 2,000 rounds of assault-rifle ammunition and a gas mask, according to court records. In encrypted conversations with other Proud Boys, he said they had to “take back our country,” and “stand together now or end up in the gulag separately,” according to court records. He downplayed his association with the group to the FBI, prosecutors said, while telling members to be on guard for law enforcement.
His attorney claims Greene has changed his tune about affiliating with the Proud Boys. Has Donald Trump?
What happened to Greene’s stockpile of ammo?
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