During the January 6 United States Capitol attack, law enforcement mounted a response, initially failing to maintain security perimeters and protect parts of the building from being breached and occupied, but succeeding at protecting members of Congress, and subsequently, as reinforcements arrived, to secure the breached Capitol.
The United States Capitol Police (USCP)Capitol Police had not planned for a riot or attack. The Capitol Police Board – consisting of the Architect of the Capitol, the House Sergeant at Arms, and the Senate Sergeant at Arms – has the authority to request the National Guard to the Capitol but made the decision on January 3 not to do so. On January 6, USCP officers deployed without "less lethal" arms such as sting grenades. Department riot shields had been improperly stored, causing them to shatter upon impact.At 12:49p.m., Capitol police responded to the two bombs near the Capitol. Minutes later, rioters breached a police perimeter west of the Capitol building. By 2:12p.m., rioters breached the Capitol building. Capitol and D.C. police then fought to protect Congress and restore order, while individuals at the Department of Defense waited over three hours to deploy the National Guard.
Capitol Police Chief Sund first requested assistance from the D.C. National Guard (DCNG) at 1:49p.m. At 2:22p.m. D.C. officials also requested National Guard deployment in a conference call with Pentagon leaders. After DoD refused to send immediate assistance, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser contacted the Public Safety Secretary of Virginia, Brian Moran, who immediately dispatched Virginia State Police to the District. At 2:49p.m., the Governor of Virginia activated all available assets including the Virginia National Guard to aid the U.S. Capitol; the authorization from DoD required for legal deployment was not granted. By 3:10p.m., police from Fairfax County, Virginia, were dispatched to the District, and began arriving at 3:15p.m.
At 4:22 p.m., Trump issued a video message on social media in which he repeated his claims of electoral fraud, praised his supporters and told them to "go home". By 4:24p.m., a 12-man armed FBI SWAT team had arrived at the Capitol Complex. Then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller finally approved deployment of the National Guard at 4:32p.m. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, later told the House committee that investigated January 6 that Pence, not Trump, had requested the deployment of the National Guard.
At 5:02, about 150 soldiers of the DCNG departed the D.C. Armory; the contingent reached the Capitol complex and began support operations at 5:40. However, Capitol Police, D.C. Metropolitan Police, and other responding law enforcement resources successfully established a perimeter on the west side of the U.S. Capitol prior to the arrival of the DCNG. At 8:00p.m., the U.S. Capitol Police declared the Capitol building to be secure.In the wake of the attack, law enforcement and Defense leaders faced criticism and calls for resignations.
Intelligence predicting an attack on the Capitol DHS, FBI, and local law enforcement
On October 30, 2020, Joseph B. Maher, the acting United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis, issued an internal memo stating that the department anticipates incidents of physical violence and civil unrest related to the period "leading up to, including, and immediately following" the election. In the same memo, Maher instituted limits on the dissemination of open-source intelligence reports on election-related security threats, citing "sensitivities and complexities" whereby "Civil unrest and election- or voter-related issues often invoke U.S. persons and First Amendment-protected activity".
On November 9, 2020, an intelligence analyst at the FBI Hazardous Devices School – a training center of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – circulated an email prompted by an analysis done by the SITE Intelligence Group; the email contained a prediction of violence in connection with the Stop the Steal rallies and listed concerns about far-right groups' activities in the context of election-related misinformation. In an internal "situational information report" dated December 29, 2020, the FBI Minneapolis field office warned of armed protests at every state capitol, orchestrated by the far-right boogaloo movement, before President-elect Biden's inauguration.
Three days before the Capitol attack, the Capitol Police intelligence unit circulated a 12-page internal memo warning that Trump supporters see the day of the Electoral College vote count "as the last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election" and could use violence against "Congress itself" on that date.
On January5, the local Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes USCP and MPD as participants, was notified by the FBI of possible impending violence at the Capitol. This involved the sharing of an internal FBI document which warned of rioters preparing to travel to Washington and setting up staging areas in various regional states. The document used the term "war" to describe the rioters' motive, which mentioned specific violence references, including the blood of Black Lives Matter and antifa members. However, the FBI decided not to distribute a formal intelligence bulletin. The FBI spoke to more than a dozen known extremists and "was able to discourage those individuals from traveling to D.C.", according to a senior FBI official. The NYPD also shared information on extremist rhetoric and threats of violence with the Capitol Police in advance of the protest.
Also on January5, Capitol Police chief Steven Sund hosted a meeting with a dozen top law enforcement and military officials from D.C., including the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, MPD, and the National Guard. According to Sund, "during the meeting, no entity, including the FBI, provided any intelligence indicating that there would be a violent attack on the United States Capitol by tens of thousands of protestors and hundreds of well-equipped rioters". Robert Contee, the acting Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, said after the Capitol attack that his department had possessed no intelligence indicating the Capitol would be breached. Some security specialists later reported they had been surprised that they had not received information from the FBI and DHS before the event. Reflections on pre-event intelligence failures in the aftermath of the attack revealed the surprise that no threat assessments had been issued, with possible causes for the failure related to DHS personnel changes and law enforcement biases.
Non-governmental On December 21, 2020, a U.K. political consultant who studies Trump-related extremism tweeted a forecast of what the planned event of January6 would become, including deaths. In the days leading up to the attack, several organizations that monitored online extremism had been issuing warnings about the event. The Anti-Defamation League published a January4 warning about calls to violently disrupt the counting. The post said the league was not aware of any credible threats of violence, but noted that "if the past is any indication, the combination of an extremist presence at the rallies and the heated nature of the rhetoric suggests that violence is a possibility". Also on January 4, British security firm G4S conducted a risk analysis, which found that there would be violent groups in Washington, D.C., between January6 and Inauguration Day based on online posts advocating for violence. Advance Democracy, Inc., a nonpartisan governance watchdog, found 1,480 posts from accounts related to QAnon that referenced the events of January6 in the six days leading up to it, including calls for violence.
Preparations for January 6
Police According to U.S. Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy, law enforcement agencies' estimates of the potential size of the crowd, calculated in advance of the event, varied between 2,000 and 80,000. On January 5, the National Park Service estimated that 30,000 people would attend the "Save America" rally, based on people already in the area.
The Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division of the Capitol Police made a threat analysis on January 3 which was drafted by a single employee who was not aided by a supervisor in writing and distributing the summary to Capitol Police leadership and others.
Sund said his department had developed a plan to respond to "First Amendment activities", but had not planned for the "criminal riotous behavior" they encountered. Sund said he directed the department to be placed on "all hands on deck" status, which meant every sworn officer would be working. He also said he activated seven Civil Disturbance Unit platoons, approximately 250 officers, with four of those platoons equipped in helmets, protective clothing and shields. On January 6, under "orders from leadership", the police force deployed without "less lethal" arms such as sting grenades. Department riot shields had been improperly stored, causing them to shatter upon impact.
On January4, D.C. Mayor Bowser announced that the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) would lead law enforcement for the event, and would coordinate with the Capitol Police, the U.S. Park Police, and the Secret Service. "To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway", Bowser wrote in a letter to the Department of Justice.
Department of Defense Days after the 2020 election, on November 9, Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, replacing him with Christopher C. Miller. On December 31, 2020, Mayor Muriel Bowser requested District of Columbia National Guard troops be deployed to support D.C. police during the expected demonstrations. In her request, she wrote that the guards would not be armed and that they would be primarily responsible for "crowd management" and traffic direction, allowing police to focus on security concerns. Miller approved the request on January 4, 2021, activating 340 troops, with no more than 114 to be deployed at any given time. In a January4 memo, Miller prohibited deploying D.C. Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents without his personal approval.
Three days before the riots, the Department of Defense twice offered to deploy the National Guard to the Capitol, but was told by the Capitol Police it would not be necessary. On January 3, Sund was reportedly refused additional National Guard support by House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul D. Irving and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael C. Stenger. On January 5, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy issued a memo directly placing limits on D.C. National Guard. The commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, Major General William J. Walker, explained the change, saying: "All military commanders normally have immediate response authority to protect property, life, and in my case, federal functions – federal property and life. But in this instance, I did not have that authority."
According to Miller's later statements, on January 3, Miller was ordered by Trump to "do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators" on January 6. On January 22, Miller disputed the criticism that the Pentagon had delayed deployment of the Guard, calling it "complete horseshit".
January 6 response Timeline of security collapse and breach
12:00 p.m.: A Federal Protective Service briefing email states that there are about 300 Proud Boys at the Capitol threatening to shut down the water system. 12:30 p.m.: Crowds of pro-Trump supporters gather outside the U.S. Capitol building.