House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s (R-GA) investigation into the work of the highly partisan House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has discovered “irrefutable evidence” that the “Department of Defense [DoD] intentionally delayed the deployment of the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
According to a Committee press release, Loudermilk sent a letter on Thursday to DoD Inspector General Robert Storch, “demanding a correction of the DoD’s factually inaccurate January 6 report.”
The press release stated:
The DoD IG concealed the extent and cause of the delay [to deploy the D.C. National Guard] to protect Department of Defense and Pentagon leadership. The Subcommittee found multiple instances where the DoD IG failed to disclose evidence that contradicted the DoD IG’s erroneous conclusion.The DoD IG’s report reflects an alarming failure to adequately evaluate the actions of senior DoD officials, including Secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy, who failed to communicate deployment orders to Major General William Walker, the Commander of the DCNG on January 6.
In his letter to Storch, Loudermilk wrote that his committee has “discovered numerous flaws and inaccuracies in the report that your office has yet to appropriately address.” After describing the HOC’s painstaking investigation, he informed Storch they have “concluded that the Department of Defense intentionally delayed the deployment of the DC [National Guard] to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Loudermilk alleged that Storch altered the timeline to protect DoD and Pentagon leaders. He wrote:
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.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. The evidence is conclusive: DoD officials misled Congress into believing that help was ‘on the way’ with full knowledge that it wasn’t.
The press release encouraged readers to “watch never-before-seen video footage from HBO, showing the Secretary of the Army’s false statements to Congressional leadership. At 3:18pm, Secretary McCarthy tells sheltering Members of Congress that he is not blocking deployment of the National Guard and, while referencing the D.C. National Guard, shares that ‘We have the greenlight. We are moving’. However, the Secretary of the Army’s own timeline indicates that the DCNG did not physically leave the Armory until 17:00 [5pm].”
What a difference an hour and 42 minutes would have made that day, huh?
Loudermilk also wrote:
A report that includes biased and incomplete statements to favor the Department of Defense and U.S. Army while disparaging the D.C. National Guard fails to represent the DoD IG’s philosophy and practice of producing unbiased, objective, impartial, and independent reviews as well as recommendations grounded in evidence and free from external influence.19 Therefore, we are left with no choice but to reject Report No. 2022-039 and request that you publish a formal correction on behalf of the 10,432 2021 congressional staff members and 535 Members of Congress who donned gas masks and retreated from their Chambers while the DCNG sat on buses waiting, less than 2 miles from the Capitol at the D.C. Armory, for communication from Secretary Ryan McCarthy.
The press release clarifies that “Report No. 2022-039” refers to a report released by Storch (DoD IG) on Nov. 16, 2021. It was titled “Review of the Department of Defense’s Role, Responsibilities, and Actions to Prepare for and Respond to the Protest and its Aftermath at the U.S. Capitol Campus on January 6, 2021.”
It also clearly establishes that “this report was the final product of the DoD IG’s investigation into the events of January 6, 2021.”
So, what are we to make of this report? First, it comes as no surprise. But more importantly, it appears to corroborate some of the evidence that was deliberately ignored by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s sham Jan. 6 Committee.
For nearly four years, Democrats have portrayed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as a deadly insurrection staged by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. They have elevated the threat it posed to our “democracy” to the level of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
They did so by cherry-picking the surveillance footage the public was allowed to see and keeping the rest under wraps for “security reasons.”
With control of the White House, both chambers of Congress, and the powerful federal agencies that conspired to frame Trump for inciting the “insurrection,” perhaps the real purveyors of “disinformation” will finally be held to account.
For starters, Pelosi and Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., must be questioned under oath about why they declined Trump’s offer of National Guard troops ahead of Jan. 6. Both women were privy to FBI reports that suggested the high possibility of violence.
And FBI Director Christopher Wray must provide the truth about the presence of undercover FBI agents at the Capitol that day. Specifically, what was the role of the mysterious Ray Epps?
Why were some Capitol Police officers waving protestors into the building?
I imagine there are quite a few very nervous career bureaucrats at the moment. After years of complicity, many will finally be made to answer for their roles in the corruption that has taken hold and undermined our federal government for more than a decade.
To those convinced accountability will never happen, you never thought that Trump would be able to overcome the Democrats’ margin of fraud to win the 2024 election. It will and he did.
On a separate but related note, did anyone else find it odd that a paper shredding truck was parked outside of the Department of Justice building on Tuesday? Just wondering.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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