US Acting Capitol Police chief admits intelligence failed during January 6 attack

Acting US Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman on Wednesday said that the Capitol police officers became ‘overwhelmed by insurrectionists’ during the January 6 riots. In her first congressional testimony to the House Appropriations Committee, Pittman acknowledged the law enforcement’s failure, stating that the department was fully liable to answer the American people. "I am here to offer my sincerest apologies on behalf of the Department," Pittman said in her testimony, Wednesday.

According to the written document Pittman turned in, as cited by news agency AP, the police chief defended the department’s inability to suppress violence and chaos, saying that the officers were “unsure” whether or not they must deploy lethal force on the protesting crowd. By then, the pro-Trump mob had resort to ensuing violence and barge into the Capitol building, she said. Pittman informed that her department had 'specially' armed the officers, intercepted radio frequencies used by the invaders and deployed spies at the Ellipse rally where President Donald Trump sent his supporters. 

But speaking in favour of the officers’ behaviour, Pittman cited all the criticism that her department faced during the Black Lives Matter protests when the police officers used harsh tactics on the mob. Delivering her testimony to the House committee, Pittman said that the intelligence ahead of insurrection had not clearly mentioned the threat of the armed militia, and the involvement of Alt-right members, white supremacists, as she compared the violent situation with a "terrorist attack”.  The department should have prepared more, Pittman told the Appropriations Committee, adding that the police knew the demonstrators outside the building wanted to target the Congress.

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Officers were 'unprepared' 

Taking a  clear stance with ex-police chief Steven Sound who cited delays in federal help, Pittman said that Sound had to ‘lobby the Board for hours’ in order to get the authorization to bring in the National Guards. After the Capitol was sieged, at least two Capitol Police Board members and the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms resigned as questions and criticism about the failure of law enforcement in tackling the situation emerged. 

Meanwhile, earlier, 4 security officials who testified at the congressional hearing alleged that the riot inciting mob at the government building ‘came prepared for war’. Officials told the Senate committee, that the pro-Trump MAGA supporters had entered the building armed, clad in defensive gears, equipped with radios in order to ensue a ‘military style’ combat against the Congress members and lawmakers. Officials blamed the security failure, saying that the officers were ‘unprepared’ for the violent attack and had ‘missed the warning sign' of an armed uprising. Furthermore, they said, that the Capitol Police’s intelligence division was sent the information about the attack by the FBI field office in Norfolk, Virginia but the fired Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund had received those warnings ‘just a night before’.

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