On Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who worked in the Obama administration, will lead a “whole of government” effort to root out “domestic terrorists.” These domestic terrorists, you will not be surprised to learn, are the same so-called “White supremacists” who engaged in what Democrats repeatedly call “the worst insurrection since the Civil War” on January 6. What that hyperbolic to the point of dishonest phrase describes is trespassing in Congress, something that has always been a preserve of the left. Of course, this time, it had a twist, because no Capitol police officer ever killed an unarmed leftist in cold blood.

Sundance, at The Conservative Treehouse, spells out what this means:

The purpose of this announcement should be crystal clear to everyone. We discussed and outlined the background previously.

In the background of these maneuvers Big Tech and Corporate Media have been instructed to push the “domestic extremist” narrative; and any truth-tellers are considered subversive, ie. against the interests of the U.S. government.

The January 6th DC protest is being used as evidence for that narrative. Deplatforming, censorship and ultimately control of voices who would warn of the larger issues continues daily.

Let me be very clear… stop and hear the drums… Something is about to happen. Approximately 100 million American voters are considered dissidents now.

Also on Tuesday, The Revolver published the results of its review of the charging documents the FBI wrote to justify the hundreds of arrests it carried out following January 6. As you think about these charges, keep in mind, again, that the only serious physical injury occurred when a Capitol police officer shot Ashli Babbitt in cold blood, that we know that the police invited people into the Capitol and that the Biden administration has refused to prosecute Antifa and BLM activists who grievously destroyed federal property and waged violent war against federal law enforcement:

• In the year leading up to 1/6 and during 1/6 itself, to what extent were the three primary militia groups (the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters) that the FBI, DOJ, Pentagon and network news have labeled most responsible for planning and executing a Capitol attack on 1/6 infiltrated by agencies of the federal government, or informants of said agencies?

• Exactly how many federal undercover agents or confidential informants were present at the Capitol or in the Capitol during the infamous “siege” and what roles did they play (merely passive informants or active instigators)?

• Finally, of all of the unindicted co-conspirators referenced in the charging documents of those indicted for crimes on 1/6, how many worked as a confidential informant or as an undercover operative for the federal government (FBI, Army Counterintelligence, etc.)?

From now on, all discussion of 1/6 must give way to a laser-like focus on the questions above, with an unwavering persistence at obtaining the answers.

If the narrative about 1/6 does not conform to the questions above, the American people will never learn the most important truth about what 1/6 is, and what kind of country they’re really living in.

If it turns out the federal government did in fact have undercover agents or confidential informants embedded within the so-called militia groups indicted for conspiring to obstruct the Senate certification on 1/6, the implications would be nothing short of seismic. Especially if such agents or informants enjoyed extremely senior-level positions within such groups.

Andrea Widburg • American Thinker

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Capitol Police force needs “cultural change” after the broad failures of the Jan. 6 insurrection, the top watchdog for the department testified Thursday, pointing to inadequate training and outdated weaponry as among several urgent problems facing the force.

Capitol Police Inspector General Michael A. Bolton has issued confidential monthly reports on the force’s missteps since the siege, when hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters broke into the building and sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives. In a 104-page report obtained by The Associated Press, he casts serious doubt on the force’s ability to respond to future threats and another large-scale attack.

Bolton told the House Administration Committee that the Capitol Police needs to improve its intelligence gathering, training, and operational planning. The way the force views its mission also needs to change, he said.

“A police department is geared to be a reactive force, for the most part,” Bolton said. “Whereas a protective agency is postured, in their training and planning, to be proactive to prevent events such as January 6th.”

The Capitol Police have so far refused to publicly release Bolton’s report — prepared in March and marked as “law enforcement sensitive.” But lawmakers discussed many of its findings at the hearing and agreed that there need to be major improvements. House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren said the department needs to be stronger and more effective “not just to keep the Capitol and those work here safer, but to keep the men and women who wear its uniform safe.”

Bolton found that the department’s deficiencies were, and remain, widespread: Equipment was old and stored badly; officers didn’t complete required training; and there was a lack of direction at the Civil Disturbance Unit, which exists to ensure that legislative functions of Congress are not disrupted by civil unrest. That was exactly what happened on Jan. 6 when Trump supporters violently pushed past police and broke into the Capitol as Congress counted the Electoral College votes that certified Joe Biden’s victory.

Bolton’s report also focuses on several pieces of missed intelligence, including the force’s inconsistent information gathering and an FBI memo sent the day before the insurrection that then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund told lawmakers he never saw. That memo, included in the report’s appendix, warned of threatening online postings by Trump backers, including one that said Congress “needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in” and blood being spilled.

The Capitol Police said in a statement Wednesday that officials had already made some of the recommended improvements. The siege was “a pivotal moment” in history, they said, that showed the need for “major changes” in how the department operates.

Still, they said, “nearly all of the recommendations require significant resources the department does not have.”

House lawmakers are hoping to provide some of those resources in spending legislation that could be proposed as soon as this month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the money would not only go to “hardening” the Capitol’s windows and doors but also to hiring and training officers.

Bolton told the panel that more money for training should be the highest priority.

“If you want to invest dollars, that’s the place to invest in, training,” Bolton said. “Training deficiencies put officers, our brave men and women, in a position not to succeed.”

His report describes in detail how department equipment was substandard, including at least 11 different types of munitions that appeared to have expired. Other weapons that could have fired tear gas were so old that officers didn’t feel comfortable using them. Some riot shields shattered upon impact. Bolton found that those shields had been improperly stored.

In other cases, weapons weren’t used by the Capitol Police because of “orders from leadership,” the investigation found. Some of those heavier weapons — called “less lethal” because they are designed to disperse rather than kill — could have helped the police repel the rioters as they moved toward the Capitol after Trump’s speech, Bolton said.

Asked by Lofgren why those weapons weren’t used, Bolton said leaders were concerned that at least one of them, a “stinger” ball grenade, could have resulted in “life-altering injury or death.” Bolton said the weapons, which disperse stinging rubber pellets, could be deadly if misused but officers who are properly trained can use them safely.

“It certainly would have provided the department a better posture to repel these attackers” if they had used those grenades, Bolton said.

The committee also discussed reforming the Capitol Police Board, an antiquated command structure that puts the Capitol Police Chief in the position of seeking approval from House and Senate security officials, even in emergencies.

The board was initially hesitant to approve a National Guard presence when Sund requested it ahead of the 6th, and Democrats and Republicans in both chambers have since said the process needs to be overhauled. Bolton suggested the possibility of installing a director above the chief of police who is responsible for all security in the Capitol complex.

Lofgren said she thinks the board needs to be reviewed. “What replaces it is the challenge,” she said. “Something that is professional and accountable and apolitical, that’s what we all want.”

The riot has pushed the Capitol Police force toward a state of crisis, with officers working extra shifts and forced overtime to protect the Capitol. The acting chief, Yogananda Pittman, received a vote of no confidence from the union in February, reflecting widespread distrust among the rank and file who were left exposed and injured as the violent mob descended on the building. Morale has plummeted.

The force is also grieving the deaths of three of their own. Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died after engaging with protesters on Jan. 6. Officer William “Billy” Evans was killed April 2 when he was hit by a car that rammed into a barricade outside the Senate. A third officer, Howard Liebengood, died by suicide in the days after the insurrection.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials have arrested and charged two men with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 riot, but they do not know yet whether it caused the officer’s death.

George Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, West Virginia, and Julian Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, were arrested Sunday on an array of charges, including assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy and other offenses. The idea that Sicknick died after being sprayed by a chemical irritant has emerged in recent weeks as a new theory in the case.

The arrests are the closest federal prosecutors have come to identifying and charging anyone associated with the deaths that happened during and after the riot. Five people died, including a woman who was shot by a police officer inside the Capitol. But many rioters are facing charges of injuring police officers, who were attacked with bats, sprayed with irritants, punched and kicked, and rammed with metal gates meant to keep the insurrectionists from the Capitol.

Investigators initially believed that Sicknick was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, based on statements collected early in the investigation, according to two people familiar with the case. But as they’ve collected more evidence, the theory of the case has evolved and investigators now believe Sicknick may have ingested a chemical substance — possibly bear spray — that may have contributed to his death, officials have said.

Sicknick and other officers were standing guard behind metal bicycle racks as the mob descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“Give me that bear shit,” Khater said before he reached into Tanios’ backpack, according to court papers. Tanios told Khater “not yet” because it was “still early,” but Tanios responded that “they just f—ing sprayed me.” Khater was then seen holding a can of chemical spray, prosecutors say.

Khater walked through the crowd toward the bike rack barrier. Rioters began pulling on one of the racks, and Khater was seen with his arm in the air and the canister in his hand while standing just 5-to-8 feet from the officers, authorities said.

Video footage shows the officers reacting one by one — bringing their hands to their face and rushing to find water to flush out their eyes — after they were hit with the spray, according to court papers.

Another officer eventually spotted Khater deploying the substance and sprayed Khater himself, authorities said.

The men each made brief court appearances from jail via videoconference on Monday and will remain locked up pending future hearings. A detention hearing was scheduled for Thursday for Tanios.

An email seeking comment was sent to Tanios’ lawyer. A person who answered the phone at the office of Khater’s lawyer said they had no comment.

In a statement Monday, Capitol Police Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman called the attack on the Capitol and its officers “an attack on our democracy.”

“Those who perpetrated these heinous crimes must be held accountable, and — let me be clear — these unlawful actions are not and will not be tolerated by this Department,” Pittman said.

The FBI had obtained video of the incident and released photos of both of the men, but did not indicate in wanted posters that they were being sought in connection with Sicknick’s death. A former colleague identified Khater and the FBI received a tip from Tanios’ former business partner, who also alleged he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from their business, court papers said.

Tanios operates a greasy spoon called Sandwich U in Morgantown, home of West Virginia University.

On social media, he has referred to himself as the “Sandwich Nazi” and has tangled with customers and former employees in online comments. In 2019 on Instagram, he gleefully promoted a one-star Google review that said, “If donald trump was a restaurant manager, this is who he would be.”

A photo at the Capitol cited in his charging document shows him wearing a sweatshirt with the logo of his restaurant.

Sicknick died after defending the Capitol against the mob that stormed the building as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden’s electoral win over Donald Trump. It came after Trump urged supporters on the National Mall to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat.

The circumstances surrounding Sicknick’s death remain unclear, and a final cause of death has not been determined. Capitol Police have said he died after he was injured “while physically engaging with protesters” and the agency’s acting chief said officials consider it a line-of-duty death.

Sicknick collapsed later on and died at a hospital on Jan. 7. The Justice Department opened a federal murder investigation into his death, but prosecutors are still evaluating what other specific charges could be brought in the case and the probe continues, officials have said.

The medical examiner’s report on Sicknick’s death is incomplete and no cause of death has been made public. Capitol Police say they are awaiting toxicology results.

The FBI has already released about 250 photos of people being sought for assaulting federal law enforcement officers during the riot. Some have already been arrested, and the Justice Department said about 300 people have been charged with federal offenses related to the riot.

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The officials, including the former chief of the Capitol Police, pointed their fingers at various federal agencies — and each other — for their failure to defend the building as supporters of then-President Donald Trump overwhelmed security barriers, broke windows and doors and sent lawmakers fleeing from the House and Senate chambers. Five people died as a result of the riot, including a Capitol Police officer and a woman who was shot as she tried to enter the House chamber with lawmakers still inside.

Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned under pressure after the attack, and the other officials said they had expected the protests to be similar to two pro-Trump events in late 2020 that were far less violent. He said he hadn’t seen an FBI field office report that warned of potential violence citing online posts about a “war.” And he and a House official disputed each other’s versions of decisions that January day and in advance about calling for the National Guard.

Sund described a scene as the mob arrived at the perimeter that was “like nothing” he had seen in his 30 years of policing and argued that the insurrection was not the result of poor planning by Capitol Police but of failures across the board. Trump had rallied the invaders to protest his election loss at the Capitol, and the House later impeached him on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.” But he noted that he had asked the crowd to protest “peacefully,” and the Senate acquitted him.

Sund insisted the invasion was not his or his agency’s fault. “No single civilian law enforcement agency – and certainly not the USCP – is trained and equipped to repel, without significant military or other law enforcement assistance, an insurrection of thousands of armed, violent, and coordinated individuals focused on breaching a building at all costs,” he testified. The joint hearing, part of an investigation by two Senate committees, was the first time the officials testified publicly about the events of Jan. 6. In addition to Sund, former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger, former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving and Robert Contee, the acting chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department, testified.

Like Sund, Irving and Stenger resigned under pressure after the deadly attack. They were Sund’s supervisors and in charge of security for the House and Senate. “We must have the facts, and the answers are in this room,” Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar said at the beginning of the hearing. The Rules panel is conducting the joint probe with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Much remains unknown about what happened before and during the assault. How much did law enforcement agencies know about plans for violence that day, many of which were public? How did the agencies share that information with each other? And how could the Capitol Police have been so ill-prepared for a violent insurrection that was organized online? Sund told the lawmakers that he learned only after the attack that his officers had received a report from the FBI’s field office in Norfolk, Virginia, that forecast, in detail, the chances that extremists could bring “war” to Washington the following day.

The head of the FBI’s office in Washington has said that once he received the Jan. 5 warning, the information was quickly shared with other law enforcement agencies through a joint terrorism task force. Sund said Tuesday that an officer on the task force had received that memo and forwarded it to a sergeant working on intelligence for the Capitol Police but that the information was not sent on to other supervisors. “How could you not get that vital intelligence?” asked Senate Homeland Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., who said the failure of the report to reach the chief was clearly a major problem. “That information would have been helpful,” Sund acknowledged. Sund said he did see an intelligence report created within his own department warning that Congress could be targeted on Jan. 6.

But he said that report assessed the probability of civil disobedience or arrests, based on the information they had, as “remote” to “improbable” for the groups expected to demonstrate. Contee, the acting city police chief, also suggested that no one had flagged the FBI information from Norfolk, Virginia, which he said came in the form of an email. He said he would have expected that kind of intelligence “would warrant a phone call or something. ” Two officials disagreed on when the National Guard was called and on requests for the guard beforehand. Sund said he spoke to both Stenger and Irving about requesting the National Guard in the days before the riot, and that Irving said he was concerned about the “optics” of having them present. Irving denied that, saying Sund’s account was “categorically false.” Safety, not optics, determined the security posture, he said, and the top question was whether intelligence supported the decision.

“We all agreed the intelligence did not support the troops and collectively decided to let it go,” Stenger said. He added that they were satisfied at the time that there was a “robust” plan to protect Congress. After smashing through the barriers at the perimeter, the invaders engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police officers, injuring dozens of them, and broke into the building. Once the violence had begun, Sund and Irving also disagreed on when the National Guard was requested — Sund said he requested it at 1:09 p.m., but Irving said he didn’t receive a request until after 2 p.m., right as rioters breached the Capitol’s West side. Contee said he was “stunned” over the delayed response.

He said Sund was pleading with Army officials to deploy National Guard troops as the rioting rapidly escalated. Police officers “were out there literally fighting for their lives” but the officials on the call appeared to be going through a ”check the boxes” exercise, he said. Pentagon officials have said it took time to put the troops in position, and there was not enough contingency planning in advance.

They said they offered the assistance beforehand but were turned down. The hearing was the first of many examinations of what happened that day, coming almost seven weeks after the attack and over a week after the Senate voted to acquit Trump of inciting the insurrection by telling his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat. Fencing and National Guard troops still surround the Capitol in a wide perimeter, cutting off streets and sidewalks that are normally full of cars, pedestrians and tourists.

Congress is also considering a bipartisan, independent commission, and multiple congressional committees have said they will look at different aspects of the siege. Federal law enforcement has arrested more than 230 people who were accused of being involved in the attack, and President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, Judge Merrick Garland, said in his confirmation hearing Monday that investigating the riot would be a priority. A second hearing, expected next week, will examine the response of the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

The panels may also hold closed-door interviews. Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, the top Republican on the Rules Committee, said they might want to ask for phone records to clear up some of the discrepancies between officials.

Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor in Washington and Nomaan Merchant in Houston contributed to this report.

MARY CLARE JALONICK, MICHAEL BALSAMO and LISA MASCARO • AP News

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The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that Sicknick, who died the next day, was injured “while physically engaging with protesters,” though a final cause of death has not yet been determined. President Joe Biden traveled to the Capitol to pay tribute to Sicknick shortly after the ceremony began Tuesday night, briefly placing his hand on the urn in the center of the Capitol Rotunda, saying a prayer and sadly shaking his head as he observed a memorial wreath nearby.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and a handful of other congressional leaders also paid their respects. The arrival of Sicknick’s remains at 9:30 p.m. was solemn, with dozens of Capitol Police standing at attention as his urn was carried up the Capitol steps. There was a viewing period for Capitol Police overnight, and lawmakers were to pay tribute at a ceremony Wednesday morning.

A ceremonial departure for Arlington National Cemetery was planned later in the day. Members of Congress remain shaken by the attack and are grappling with what it means not only for the future of the country, but for their own security as elected representatives. While lawmakers were united in denouncing the riots, and Trump’s role in them, the parties are now largely split on how to move forward.

House Democrats impeached Trump a week after the attack, sending a charge of “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate, where Republicans are unlikely to provide the votes necessary to convict him. At the same time, the building has been cut off from the public, surrounded by large metal fences and defended by the National Guard. Sicknick, 42, of South River, New Jersey, enlisted in the National Guard six months after graduating high school in 1997, then deployed to Saudi Arabia and later Kyrgyzstan.

He joined the Capitol Police in 2008. Like many Capitol Police officers, he often worked security in the Capitol itself and was known to lawmakers, staff and others who passed through the building’s doors each morning. There are still questions about his death, which was one of five as a result of the rioting. As the mob forced its way in, Sicknick was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, two law enforcement officials said.

He collapsed later on, was hospitalized and died. The officials could not discuss the ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Investigators are also examining whether he may have ingested a chemical substance during the riot that may have contributed to his death, the officials said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced last week that Sicknick would lie in honor, which is reserved for a select few.

In a joint statement they said his heroism “helped save lives, defend the temple of our democracy and ensure that the Congress was not diverted from our duty to the Constitution.” His sacrifice, they said, “reminds us every day of our obligation to our country and to the people we serve.” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues on Tuesday that the Capitol Police “demonstrated extraordinary valor” on Jan. 6 and urged members to pay their respects.

She has also encouraged members to take advantage of trauma resources available to congressional employees. She said protecting the Capitol and the lawmakers who work there is a “highest priority” and that there will be a need for extra money to do so. During the assault, many of the insurrectionists called out for members, including Pelosi. They also targeted Vice President Mike Pence, who was in the building to preside over the electoral count. “The insurrectionist attack on January 6 was not only an attack on the Capitol, but was a traumatic assault targeting Members,” she said.

Sicknick is only the fifth person to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, a designation for those who are not elected officials, judges or military leaders. The others who have lain in honor were John Gibson and Jacob Chestnut, Jr., two officers who were killed in a 1998 shooting at the Capitol; civil rights leader Rosa Parks, who died in 2005; and the Rev. Billy Graham, who died in 2018.

MARY CLARE JALONICK • AP News

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