Then-President Donald Trump gave clear instructions to Pentagon brass days before the Jan. 6 riots to “do whatever it takes” to keep the U.S. Capitol safe, including deploying National Guard or active-duty troops, but top officials did not comply because of political concerns, according to transcripts of bombshell interviews conducted by the Defense Department's chief watchdog that shine new light on government disfunction ahead of the historic tragedy.
Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, confirmed to the Pentagon inspector general three years ago that during a Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting Trump pre-approved the use of National Guard or active duty troops to keep peace in the nation’s capital on the day Congress was to certify the results of the 2020 election.
The transcripts of Milley’s April 8, 2021, and April 16, 2021, interviews confirm reporting by Just the News two years ago that Trump wanted troops to keep the capital city safe.
Milley's interviews were among several key to transcripts obtained by House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and shared with Just the News.
Miller said officials instead used an interagency process to devise an alternative plan that would put some DC National Guard troops on the ground in the nation’s capitol to direct traffic but not to guard the Capitol, a plan that District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser suggested.
For instance, ex-Defense Secretary Miller told Congress that Trump gave a specific number of troops he wanted to see made available for security ahead of Jan. 6.
The DC Homeland Security Coordinator Christopher Rodriguez told the Pentagon inspector general that the same concerns about political optics that nixed troops at the Capitol ahead of time may have factored into the delay on the afternoon of Jan. 6, noting a top Army official used the word “optics” during a call as emergency resources were being urgently sought to quell the violence at the Capitol.
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