Three D.C. National Guard officers on duty on January 6, 2021 will testify in the House on Wednesday regarding the breakdown in Military communication that led to hours-long delays in mobilization for the Capitol attack. (Credit: Nur Photo/Getty Images)
Whistleblowers from the Washington D.C. National Guard will tell Congress that Donald Trump did want them deployed during the Capitol riot and the Army delayed telling them to mobilize in a bombshell hearing next week.
DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal that at least three officers will appear Wednesday before a House subcommittee to claim their stories were also ignored by the Democrat-led January 6 committee, because it didn’t fit their narrative.
The hearing will aim to further prove that Acting Defense Secretary at the time Christopher Miller did give advance approval of D.C. National Guard deployment at the direction of then-President Donald Trump.
Ryan McCarthy resigned January 20, 2021 amid questions about his role in readying National Guard troops. (Credit: John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
A person familiar with the review by the House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee said the whistleblowers will provide testimony that then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy delayed by at least two hours providing official notice to D.C. National Guard Commander William Walker to deploy troops to the Capitol.
Instead of getting to the bottom of the breakdown in communication and focusing on improving Military preparedness for future incidents, the witnesses feel the January 6 panel was solely focused on pinning blame for the events that day on Trump.
The officers, who were with Walker the day of the Capitol riot, will detail how they were on buses in full tactical gear for hours waiting for the go-ahead from the Army.
McCarthy has stated under oath that he did give a timely order for deployment of the D.C. National Guard – but Walker’s troops said they found out about mobilization during a press conference, which led to a three-hour-and-19-minute delay of forces arriving at the Capitol.
Some suggest that McCarthy was vying for a spot in President Joe Biden’s incoming administration and didn’t like the optics of it looking like the Army, under his command, was trying to interfere or inhibit certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
The hearing on Wednesday is titled ‘Three Years Later: D.C. National Guard Whistleblowers Speak Out on January 6 Delay’ and aims to examine whether Trump was at fault for the delay in National Guard deployment.
Additionally, the whistleblowers will reveal how the January 6 Committee did not want to hear their testimony because it corroborated Trump and his allies’ claims that the former president did authorize the National Guard days in advance to respond to any violence or unrest on January 6, 2021.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) is chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee, which is tasked with reviewing the January 6 Committee’s investigation into the Capitol riot.
(…) Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and DC National Guard leader Maj. Gen. Walker said that Army Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt (ret.), who was Army Staff Director at the time of the riot, delayed or ignored Sund’s request for National Guard support.
They accused Piatt of saying: ‘I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background.’
The D.C. National Guard whistleblowers will be able during Wednesday’s hearing to corroborate this despite Piatt testifying under oath that he never mentioned optics.
(Read more: The Daily Mail, 4/12/2024) (Archive)
Full Hearing, 4/17/2024