Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and the January 6 Committee suppressed key evidence that former President Donald Trump pushed for 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the U.S. Capitol building ahead of the riots, according to a report.
Cheney and the Democratic-led House Select Committee on January 6 contended that there was “no evidence” to support Trump officials’ claims the White House had pressed for 10,000 National Guard troops ahead of the protests in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
However, a transcribed interview conducted by the committee from January 2022 appears to show evidence that Trump urged Democrat leadership to bring in thousands of National Guard troops to prevent any widespread violence on Jan. 6, according to a new report from The Federalist.
Then-Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato was interviewed by the committee on Jan. 28, 2022. The transcripts show that he told Cheney and other investigators that he overheard White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urge Democrat D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to request as many National Guard troops as she needed to protect the city before the demonstrations centered around the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Ornato testified that Meadows “wanted to know if she need[ed] any more guardsmen.”
“And I remember the number 10,000 coming up of, you know, ‘The president wants to make sure that you have enough.’ You know, ‘He is willing to ask for 10,000.’ I remember that number,” Ornato told the January 6 Committee. “Now that you said it, it reminded me of it. And that she was all set. She had, I think it was like 350 or so for intersection control, and those types of things not in the law enforcement capacity at the time.”
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway wrote, “Not only did the committee not accurately characterize the interview, they suppressed the transcript from public review. On top of that, committee allies began publishing critical stories and even conspiracy theories about Ornato ahead of follow-up interviews with him. Ornato was a career Secret Service official who had been detailed to the security position in the White House.”
Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk – chairman of the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight – said in a statement on Friday, “The former J6 Select Committee apparently withheld Mr. Ornato’s critical witness testimony from the American people because it contradicted their pre-determined narrative.”
“Mr. Ornato’s testimony proves what Mr. Meadows has said all along, President Trump did in fact offer 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. Capitol, which was turned down,” Loudermilk noted.
“This is just one example of important information the former Select Committee hid from the public because it contradicted what they wanted the American people to believe,” he continued. “And, this is exactly why my investigation is committed to uncovering all the facts, no matter the outcome.”
Also in Ornato’s testimony, he explained how Trump’s White House was frustrated with the response of a quick reaction force requested from the Department of Defense.
As the protests escalated into chaos, Meadows called on Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller to deploy the quick reaction force.
“So then I remember the chief saying, ‘Hey, I’m calling Secretary of Defense to get that QRF in here,'” Ornato told the committee. “And then I remember the chief telling Miller, ‘Get them in here, get them in here to secure the Capitol now.’ And that’s where I remember the National Guard being, you know, ordered by the chief.”
According to Ornato’s testimony, Meadows had been constantly inquiring about when the QRF would arrive to secure the Capitol.
“Every time [Meadows] would ask, ‘What’s taking so long?’ It would be, like, you know, ‘This isn’t just start the car and we’re there. We have to muster them up, we have to’ — so it was constant excuses coming of — not excuses, but what they were actually doing to get them there,” Ornato testified. “So, you know, ‘We only have so many here right now. They’re given an hour to get ready.’ So there’s, like, all these timelines that was being explained to the chief. And he relayed that, like, you know — he’s like, ‘I don’t care, just get them here,’ you know, and ‘Get them to the Capitol, not to the White House.'”
As Blaze News previously reported in January, the Jan. 6 Committee has been accused of deleting password-protected files that contained “critical information” just days before Republicans seized the majority in the House of Representatives.
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