WASHINGTON
Christopher Miller, former President Trump’s acting Defense secretary, plans to tell Congress on Wednesday he was concerned that sending troops to the Capitol on Jan. 6 would fuel fears of a military coup, according to his prepared remarks.
National Guard troops were eventually dispatched to the building and helped quell the melee, allowing Congress to proceed with counting electoral votes to cement Democrat Joe Biden’s victory as president. Some remain on guard at the Capitol grounds five months later.
Miller is one of two high-ranking former Trump administration officials scheduled to defend for the first time Wednesday how they responded to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which is probing why it took so long for federal assistance to reach beleaguered police officers battling the pro-Trump mob.
Trump official to tell Congress he feared sending troops Jan. 6 would have looked like a coup attempt
Updated May 11, 2021;
Posted May 11, 2021
Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller speaks during a meeting with Minister of National Defence of Lithuania Raimundas Karoblis on November 13, 2020 at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/TNS)TNS
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WASHINGTON Christopher Miller, former President Donald Trump’s acting defense secretary, plans to tell Congress on Wednesday he was concerned that sending troops to the Capitol on Jan. 6 would fuel fears of a military coup, according to his prepared remarks.
National Guard troops were eventually dispatched to the building and helped quell the melee, allowing Congress to proceed with counting electoral votes to cement Democrat Joe Biden’s victory as president. Some remain on guard at the Capitol grounds five months later.
Capitol Police lack adequate resources to investigate a surge in new threats, watchdog finds By Michael Kaplan, Cassidy McDonald
Updated on: May 7, 2021 / 2:19 PM / CBS News Capitol Police face rise in threats
Threats have surged against the people and property that Capitol Police are charged with protecting, according to the most recent report by the department s inspector general, which also found the department did not have adequate resources to analyze and investigate the rising risks.
The April report, obtained first by CBS News, revealed that the number of threat cases increased from 171 in 2017 to 586 in 2020 and have already topped 200 through the first three months of the year. The department views a threat as a communication or action showing clear or implied intent to inflict physical, psychological, or other harm, including those targeted at lawmakers and the Capitol building itself.
Insurrection fallout: The hunt for a new US Capitol Police Chief
Four months after the attack on the US Capitol exposed massive failures of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, Capitol Hill security officials have just a few more weeks to solicit candidates for what may be one of the hardest policing jobs in America.
The deadline to apply to be the next chief of the US Capitol Police is May 17, with officials hoping to hire someone by this summer. Whoever is chosen as the new chief of the 2,500-person department will have a massive task.
On top of taking over a force still reeling from the violence of the January 6 attack and beset by low-morale, a new chief will have to manage the immense political pressure that comes with the job, usher in a litany of unknown but almost certainly controversial new security recommendations, and work within a system of overlapping law enforcement and military jurisdictions. All that while answering to multiple bosses, appeasing hundreds of m