Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) sent a letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General, declaring that the DOD delayed the deployment of Washington, D.C. National Guard members during the January 6, 2021 protest.
“Throughout the Subcommittee’s extensive investigation into the failures of January 6, 2021, we have discovered numerous flaws and inaccuracies in the report that your office has yet to appropriately address,” the letter says.
“After a thorough examination of e-mails and documents, including letters, memorandums, agreements, plans, orders, reports, briefings, statements made in congressional hearings, closed-door testimony to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (‘Select Committee’), and closed-door testimony made to the DoD IG, the Subcommittee’s investigation has concluded that the Department of Defense intentionally delayed the deployment of the DCNG to the Capitol on January 6, 2021,” Loudermilk wrote. “Furthermore, the Subcommittee also maintains that the DoD IG knowingly concealed the extent of the delay in constructing a narrative that is favorable to DoD and Pentagon leadership.”
Loudermilk went on to state that the DOD IG failed to interview witnesses who offered an account of the event contrary to the Pentagon’s narrative.
“The Subcommittee is deeply concerned that the DoD IG’s failure to interview witnesses who testify to a contradictory account of events of January 6 erode any suggestion that this report is correct or unbiased,” he wrote.
The report goes on to list several failures within the DOD’s response to January 6. These failures support the Subcommittee’s finding that the “DoD IG is complicit in intentionally concealing DoD actions to delay the DCNG’s response to the Capitol on January 6.”
Loudermilk said in a statement: “My Subcommittee worked with the DoD IG in good faith throughout our investigation to provide multiple opportunities for the DOD IG to produce corroborating materials or evidence to support their conclusions. Unfortunately, the DoD IG continues to promote an inaccurate narrative that protects senior Pentagon officials and attempts to cast fault on the D.C. National Guard, who were ready and waiting less than 2 miles from the Capitol but unable to respond on January 6 due to lack of communication from the Secretary of the Army.”
“My Subcommittee released transcripts that show that not only were political concerns of ‘optics’ at play, but that DoD officials continued to delay as the riot at the Capitol worsened,” he said. “The evidence is conclusive: DoD officials misled Congress into believing that help was ‘on the way’ with full knowledge that it wasn’t.”
