I want to hear what steps were taking to protect the capitol on march 4th from any more violent extremists. Thank you. Okay. Talk to him about that later. Senator warner has arrived via video. And senator peters will work with us for restroom breaks and the like. We dont want to take a long break, but i could imagine you need a break at some point here. Senator warner. Thank you, madam chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing today. You know, weve talked a little bit about the deployment or lack of deployment of the National Guard. And one of the questions for mr. Sund or chief contee, in the fact that we the district did not have the ability to bring the guard to the table because of frankly marian bowser was not treated in a totally fair fashion in this. This may be outside your lane, but her inability to bring the guard to the table and actually any on the panel, you know, that to me is a reflection of the disempowerment of the district. On a goingforward basis in terms of preparing the National Guard, should the mayor of the District Of Columbia have the power to do that in terms of the hurdles for the federal checklist . Yes. I absolutely agree with that. Anybody else want to continue answer that question as well . We have an established process or the Capitol Police do to make the request through the Capitol Police board that is equally as effective. I feel like the longterm discrimination against the district, weve seen it in some of the legislation where they did not receive the same kind of level of support that other states did. We saw it play out real time in terms of on january 6th, from the previous administration, i had concerns the deployment of the guard was slowed down. I hope that we in the congress will as a supporter of d. C. Statehood expect that to move forward, but short of that, trying to ensure that the mayor has appropriate powers Going Forward. I know there were some questions raised about the fbi and the intel that came out of the norfolk fbi office was ever fully relayed to all of you individuals. But can you talk more generally about the fbis response on this sharing of intelligence . I had a number of conversations. I called director wray on monday the 4th. Trying to express concerns that there might be this kind of activity. I never expected this level of violence. I had a number of conversations with senior fbi leadership the 5th through the 6th. I candidly i thought i would be fully informed of what was going to come to pass, but i felt like the fbi felt they were in better shape in terms of intel and preparation than what came to be the case. Id a leukemia each of you to comment on how well you felt that the fbi did in terms of sharing intelligence and then coordinating when the actual activities of the 6th played out. Ill go ahead and you want me to address it first . Yeah. I mean okay. I cant see where you all are. Any one of you can take a crack at it. Ill start first. I think the relationship we have with the fbi is outstanding. I think in my time with metropolitan and my time here weve seen nothing but the relationship get better. The construct that we have thats very similar to other cities is having the joint Terrorism Task force, being involved with that. The information were getting in is good. I think the process and having like i said earlier the wider lens of what information is being collected, maybe looking at the agencies that are consumers of their information and what their intelligence collection requirements are is something we need to look at. But i think, you know, getting that information in and then having it processed and pushed forward in an effective manner is something we need to look at. I would say on the 6th, when this started happening, you know, immediately the fbi, being a partner of ours, established a process where with Capitol Police and fbi police, we can begin to analyze video footage, analyze other evidence, to be going out and making arrests of the individuals that had created the insurrection of the capitol. Ill go next. I would echo what chief sund just mentioned. We have a great work relationship with the fbi. I think its a whole intelligence approach, not specifically just the fbi when we have something as significant as what occurred here at the u. S. Capitol. You know, if theres information, specific information out there that our government is responding too, i would think something of that nature would rise to the level of more than just working with the agencies. That should be a larger, more involved conversation about specifics, not just some of the unvetted raw information thats out there. We see a lot of that, but i think its more of a whole intelligence approach, not specifically the fbi. They are great partners to the metropolitan Police Department. Thank you. Let me just i dont know if any other Panel Members want to add any comment on that. Let me just say that my concern is that, you know, in virginia, weve seen these antigovernment extremists take to the streets of charlottesville in 2017, resulting in the death of heather heyer. Weve seen the same groups come to the forefront on january 6th. I think this is an ongoing threat to National Security. I fear at times that while the fbi and others have pointed this out, that it didnt get the level of serious review that it should have. With the prior administration, i felt at times that they did not want to take the information that was coming out of the fbi. I hope on a goingforward basis well be more coordinated in terms of taking on antigovernment extremism, whether it comes from the left or the right. This is a real ongoing threat. The Intelligence Community has seen these groups have connections and ties to antigovernment Extremists Group in europe where they take precedent. My time has expired but this is something we need more work on. Thank you for holding this hearing. Thank you very much, senator warner. We look forward to working with you and the Intelligence Community on this. Next senator langford and then senator carper. Theres a let fer many the public domain, an eightpage letter to Speaker Pelosi attributed to you with the vents of that day. Are you familiar and is it accurate . Yes, sir. In the letter itself, you describe several things and the details and time line on it. Can you tell me why you wrote this letter to the speaker . What was the purpose . I feel at the time i resigned, i had limited communications with my department. I know my department was getting ready to go and testify at some of the initial committee hearings. And i think that she had called for my resignation without full understanding of what we had prepared for, what we had gone through, that i think she deserved to read, you know, first hand what wed prepared for and what we dealt with for the 6th. Thats helpful. You had said in this, and talked several times about thousands of wellkoord namted, wellequipped criminals and described them with climbing gear and other things youve testified to. You mention the letter about the pipe bombs that were located, the first at 12 52 that a pipe bomb had been located at the Republican NationalCommittee National headquarters. How was that located . Who found it and why was that the moment it was found . I dont know why that was the particular moment it was found. I believe it was an employee of the Republican National committee that had located it in the rear of the building, called it into Capitol Police headquarters. You mentioned before you thought it was part of a coordination that there were several out there that would take away resources at that exact moment. But theres no way to know they would find it at that exact moment. Im glad they did find it. They found another one at the democratic headquarters as well at 150 and you document that as well. But you had to have seen quite a few individuals to go to the rnc and dnc to deal with those explosives planted there. Is that correct . That is correct. Just for your information, the rnc pipe bomb, that was one that was really run by Capitol Police. The dnc metropolitan ended up taking that and running that so we could run two concurrently. That resulted in the evacuation of two congressional buildings, the Cannon House Office building as well as one of the library of congress buildings. It took extensive resources. To the assault on the capitol is not what caused the evacuation of those buildings. It was the pipe bomb discovery. Correct, sir. Theres been a bit of conversation today and quite a few members that have talked about the National Guard and the length of time it took to be able to go through the bureaucratic process and get them deployed. I do think that needs to be shortened, obviously, in a deployment structure, and the complexity of the bureaucracy here. There seems to be a misunderstanding on this dais as some individuals describing the National Guard as if theyre the riot police that can automatically be called theyre not were you expecting to have a rapidresponse s. W. A. T. Team at this point . Whats a typical response from the National Guard to be able to call them out when theyre not currently positioned . I believe the typical response was theyre approved in two hours. Then the approval process is multiple hours to do that or multiple days to d that. You had started that process several days before making requests. So that is correct. As far as the process, you know, my initial request was over to mr. Irving, an inperson request on the 4th. It wasnt until the evening of the 4th i talked to general walker that he informed me that if needed because mr. Stinger wanted me to ask them if they could lean forward if needed in a fairly quick fashion once approved. Thats what led into january 6th when we made the initial request at 109. That 125 individuals from the National Guard that were prepared to be able to move faster because they were in streets and different places on traffic duty at that point, you had been informed that the city of washington, d. C. , and the Mayors Office had made a request to dod and dod had approved it that none of them would be armed, none of them would have heavy gear on. There would be no military vehicles that would be available to them. They had to use unmarked vans and other government vans and no helicopters would be used. Those were prohibited that day for those 125 individuals that were already on the street. Is that correct . Just for correction, at the time, no, i did not know that was the restrictions being placed on them. Two, when i talked to general walker the evening of the 4th, which was monday evening, the 125 he was going to give us were 125 that were doing covid relief for the District Of Columbia, not assigned to the traffic post. The individuals assigned to traffic duty had no weapons, had no military vehicles, no overhead visual on anything. That had all been requested no from the city of washington, d. C. , and then for the other individuals that could be assigned as a rapid force, those were folks currently doing covid duty. So you had no s. W. A. T. Team. This disproportionately is interesting to me that people think suddenly the National Guard just bursts in and is ready to go. Thats not what the National Guard is prepositioned to do. That is correct. Anytime we request the National Guard theyve been unarmed fashion. I was looking for them to help support the perimeter we had established. There has been some concern, i talked to some of the officers here and obviously been some conversation around this dais as well about the rules of engagement and about training and authorization. There wasnt training for what to do if a mass group actually comes through the door and tries to burst through, whether its an insurrectiontype event, whether its a mob thats gone crazy and protesting out of hand to be able to burst through the door. There was no clarity for the officers inside the building on rules of engagement once they came to the building. My impression is they had to make it up on their own and determined their stand would be where the members and the staff were located. That was going to be their stand to start using lethal force. So i have a couple questions for that. At this point now, and i understand hindsight is 20 20, is there a need for more capability for officers with less than lethal capabilities in clear rules of engagement what to do if you have a group of individuals come into the building unauthorized . Just for clarification, we do train for people trying to get into the building. We dont train for an insurrection of thousands of people. Right. Our officers do have less lethal capability they carry with them. Hindsight what it is from january 6th, absolutely, i think there needs to be additional training and equipment to consider this type of attack in the future. The challenge is we all watched this summer, in fact, this committee, Homeland Security, had a hearing on the assaults on a federal courthouse in portland and went through and all of us saw for a month individuals just attack that courthouse day after day after day. We saw the techniques that were used. Some of those same techniques were used by individuals who came in here, not saying it was the same individuals, but those same techniques to be able to find a way to attack officers. So the challenge is that we saw this is rising, i guess, people were watching on temperature, people attacking a federal institution all summer long. It is a followup well have to do in the days ahead of how to get less than lethal capability and find ways to stop any kind of assault of a number of individuals to be able to come on the capitol. Appreciate your service and appreciate very much the officers that continue to be able to serve, because they have not had a gap, a break since that time period. I know you still interact with them, at least i hope you do. Yes, sir. And i would encourage you to pass on from us our gratitude, and were all looking at this as a hindsight 20 20 saying why couldnt you leave the tea leaves with this scrap of intelligence that came in the night before. None of us saw it at that level. Were grateful for their service. Thank you very much, sir. I know they appreciate your support as well as the support of congress. Theyre a hell of a police agency. Thank you, senator langford. Thank you for your patience, senator carper. Chief contee, as a former governor in the state of delaware, i recall instances in which i called on the National Guard. Ice storms, you name it. A lot more. I know the importance of the work there for decades and other states around the country. As we have learned in contrast to every other states National Guard and country, the d. C. National guard operates differently. Im convinced if someone had been able to activate the National Guard, 1,000 or 2,000 guardsmen and women deployed at the capitol in a timely way on the 6th of january, the destruction occurred. The leader of the 50 states we have, the leader for the District Of Columbia activating the d. C. National guard during an emergency, thats why one of the years i worked for years with congresswoman Eleanor Holmes norton forin support of legislation for washington, d. C. , as our 51st state, over 700,000 people. Chief contee, in your testimony you highlight a request for d. C. National guard assistance at the u. S. Capitol on january 6th. Would have had to have been made by the u. S. Capitol police with the consent of the u. S. Department of defense. Can you just take a minute to explain that process and why marian bowser was not able to request d. C. National guard assistance when property and human lives are threatened in the district that she leads . Please go ahead. Yes. Thank you for the question. So the mayor does not have full authority over the National Guard to include their activation or deployment. When the mayor we make a request as the District Of Columbia, we make a request, we send that to the federal government. Ultimately, the secretary of the army sees that request. Theres a whole approval process that that request has to go through in order for National Guard resources to be deployed to the District Of Columbia. Unlike governors in other states who are able to activate their National Guard without going through those approval processes and receiving approval the highest level of the federal government, we just that just does not have to take place in other states. So a real hindrance to us in terms of our response and the ability to call them up. Thank you for that response. Can you take a minute to share with us your thoughts on whether having d. C. National guard under the command of a mayor or even a governor might help the d. C. Metropolitan police in coordinating with fed ralt authorities to better protect the city and its citizens . And federal installations like the one we experienced on the 6th. Yes. I think we certainly should. We knew even on that day on january 6th, you know, prior to any movement of the National Guard from the assignments they had been given, the traffic posts, again, that required approval at the highest levels of the federal government to include the secretary of the army and the secretary of the defense in order to just move the National Guard or change mission in essence. So, yes, i think that should certainly be something that falls under the mayors authority. Thank