What did they know?
As investigations begin to be organized, some things are abundantly clear already. On the ground, Capitol Hill cops expedited and assisted the rioters in their invasion of the Capitol building. Countless video clips capture the opening of gates and doors, the fraternization, the bon homey. Other reports describe police giving directions to rioters seeking targets, Chuck Schumer’s office for instance. Capitol Police, in many instances, served as traffic cops for the conspirators and took selfies of their participation. They no doubt could not have done all of this without the acquiescence and probable direction of the police hierarchy. Should the heads of this agency be allowed to simply resign? The Capitol Police is a secretive agency, exempt from FOIA and under the patronage thumb of Congress. This means that members of Congress have considerable influence over its operations and directions and personnel. This needs to be investigated thoroughly. What was the influence of radical Trumpsters in Congress over the behavior and lack of strategy of the Capitol Police.
That does not even begin to address the failures and possible complicity of higher ups in the FBI, Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the Defense Department. There is starting to be some highly suggestive reporting on this front. For instance, the Washington Post obtained internal memos showing that the Pentagon blocked efforts to arm and ready the national guard for use during the riot and insurrection. Instead, the Pentagon adamantly maintained that the guard should be unarmed and relegated to traffic control. Prior to the riot, Pentagon officials, and presumably the Secretary of Defense, insisted that the guard be unarmed and without riot gear. Nor could they use their own surveillance or interact with rioters in any way. The Capitol Police did not request guard support at any time before Wednesday. When the police finally requested help on Wednesday, Secretary of the Army officials said no, citing the “optics” of guardsmen inside the Capitol. Apparently it was preferable to see rioters lounging about in Nancy Pelosi’s office. Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller made no statement about the insurrection until Thursday. It should be noted that Miller had no experience managing a massive bureaucracy when Trump plucked him from obscurity and named him head of the Pentagon after firing Mark Esper in November.
The questions swirling around all this are as thick as flies on pig shit. The FBI? Homeland Security? The Justice Department? The White House? A question that was narrowly focused during Watergate seems incredibly pertinent here. When Sen. Howard Baker asked it in 1974, it was very straightforward: What did the president know and when did he know it? That simple question should still be asked of the president, the president’s son, the president’s lawyer and others in his immediate orbit. But it really needs to be asked of the entire administration, a number of federal law enforcement agencies, and members of Congress and their staffs: What did they know and when did they know it? And what did they do about it?