Army secretary, Pentagon stymied National Guard on Jan. 6; inspector general covered it up, report says

The Pentagon dismissed an order from President Donald J. Trump to use the National Guard to ensure safety on Jan. 6, intentionally delayed Guard deployment for hours, lied about it to congressional leaders, and used its own inspector general to cover it all up, a U.S. House report concludes.

After a two-year investigation, the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight put the blame for failure to get National Guard troops to the U.S. Capitol on former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, two Pentagon Army generals, and Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller.

“Over the past 24 months of this investigation, my subcommittee staff have faced incredible obstacles in pursuit of the truth; missing and deleted documents, hidden evidence, unaccounted-for video footage, and uncooperative bureaucrats,” said U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the subcommittee.

'Incredibly, it would take nearly four years for video footage to emerge of Speaker Pelosi — in a rare moment of true leadership — admitting that she was fully responsible.'

A draft of the report was obtained by Blaze News. It corroborates and expands on Jan. 6 failures that were detailed in a Sept. 19 Blaze News report.

“This report reveals that there was not just one single cause for what happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6; but it was a series of intelligence, security, and leadership failures at several levels and numerous entities,” Loudermilk wrote in the report, set for release on Dec. 17.

“Even amid multiple failures, there were two common elements that significantly contributed to the security issues: an excessive amount of political influence on critical decisions, and a greater concern over the optics than for protecting life and property,” Loudermilk wrote.

The Pentagon failures were covered up and made worse by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, which issued a report “that contains fabricated information, ignores crucial information, fails to interview key individuals, and appears to have collaborated with DoD to portray a false narrative,” the report said.

Stymieing of National Guard

The Loudermilk report was ostensibly meant to investigate the failures and politicization of the now-defunct Jan. 6 Select Committee, but it spent most of its pages on efforts to stymie getting the National Guard to the Capitol after desperate calls for help from Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.

Officials in the highest levels of the Pentagon blamed the massive security failure at the Capitol on the District of Columbia National Guard rather than owning up to their own efforts to sabotage making the Guard available to quell rioting, the report said.

Tear gas and incendiary munitions are used on a crowd of protesters on the West Plaza of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

“The events of January 6, 2021, were preventable,” Loudermilk wrote. “For nearly four years, Democrats pushed the narrative that President Trump was solely responsible for the riot at the Capitol — spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a politically motivated witch hunt while failing to legitimately examine how United States Capitol leadership was unable to ensure adequate protection for Members of Congress and thousands of congressional staff.

'These actions taken by Pentagon leadership led to the DoD’s paralysis in response to the riot at the U.S. Capitol.'

“Incredibly, it would take nearly four years for video footage to emerge of Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi — in a rare moment of true leadership — admitting that she was fully responsible for the security failures that day,” Loudermilk said.

The report suggests that the two top members of the select committee — U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — should be investigated for allegedly destroying investigative documents and possibly suborning perjury from Cassidy Hutchinson, a key anti-Trump witness who testified before the select committee. Cheney likely broke “numerous federal laws” and “should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report said.

The report makes six key findings on the National Guard issue that primarily implicate McCarthy for undermining efforts to move a Guard quick-reaction force from a nearby staging area to the Capitol, forcing Sund to call in 1,700 law enforcement officers from around the National Capital Region to retake the Capitol grounds.

Blame falls to McCarthy

Secretary McCarthy “intentionally delayed” the Guard response that had been approved at 3:04 p.m. by acting Secretary Miller, then lied to Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and other congressional leaders by claiming Guard troops were “physically moving to the Capitol” when he “knew these forces had yet to receive any orders,” the report said.

McCarthy and Miller both placed unusual restrictions on the D.C. National Guard in memos issued on Jan. 4 and 5, the report said. The memos withheld authority for the DCNG to be “issued weapons, ammunition, bayonets, and batons” and “interact physically with protesters.” McCarthy issued a further restriction on use of a 40-man Quick Reaction Force until a “concept of operations plan” was submitted to him.

“These actions taken by Pentagon leadership led to the DoD’s paralysis in response to the riot at the U.S. Capitol,” the report said.

“The Subcommittee concludes that these explicit control measures on the National Guard stem from both ill-advised, poor judgement by the Acting Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army, and DoD leadership’s intent to prevent or limit the National Guard’s ability to act on January 6.”

'We have the green light. We are moving.'

Chief Sund made an urgent request for Guard help during a conference call with the Pentagon at 2:30 p.m.

“Although the purpose of the 2:30 p.m. call was to request the immediate support of the DCNG, Secretary McCarthy, whose permission was expressly required, declined to make himself available for the call,” the report said. “Participants on this call shockingly heard Secretary McCarthy’s senior army staff, Lieutenant General [Walter] Piatt and Major General [Charles] Flynn, recommend denying the request for support, displaying a preoccupation with ‘optics.’”

Defense Secretary Miller approved Chief Sund’s request for assistance at 3:04 p.m. and communicated the approval to McCarthy, the report said. McCarthy failed to tell Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, who didn’t receive the approval to act until after 5:00 p.m.

Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund made an urgent request for National Guard help during a 2:30 p.m. conference call with Pentagon officials on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

McCarthy claims he called Gen. Walker at 3:05 p.m. Walker “has consistently denied that he received any communication from Secretary McCarthy or his staff at any point on January 6, 2021, as he was waiting for authorization to deploy his forces to the Capitol,” the report said.

“The failure to communicate the order in a timely manner has never been addressed by either DoD or oversight bodies, including the Select Committee,” the report said.

At 3:18 p.m., McCarthy spoke on a call with Pelosi, Schumer, and other key lawmakers who tried to impress upon him the urgency of the situation at the Capitol.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) described “a critical situation and a risk of loss of life.” Schumer added, “We have some senators who are still in their hideaways, they need massive personnel now — can you get Maryland National Guard to come too?” Pelosi told McCarthy she planned to call D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to report that McCarthy was no longer blocking deployment of the Guard, the report said.

“Speaker, I never said no. I just had to get permission. It’s not my personal authority. I had to talk to my boss,” McCarthy replied.

“Speaker Pelosi asked, ‘Did you talk to your boss?’ to which Secretary McCarthy responded, ‘I did, yes. We have the green light. We [DCNG] are moving.’”

The truth was that the D.C. Guard was not moving and had not been ordered to the Capitol despite Secretary Miller’s 3:04 p.m. approval.

Col. Earl Matthews testifies before the House Committee on Administration Subcommittee on Oversight April 17, 2024, about alleged falsehoods in the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General Jan. 6 report.Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

“The most troubling aspect of these misleading statements is that congressional leaders made decisions affecting the security of Members of Congress and their staff, based on the information that the DCNG was en route to the Capitol at 3:18 p.m.,” the report said.

McCarthy has faced no repercussions for his apparently deceptive communication with congressional leaders.

“To date, no investigation or disciplinary action has taken place against Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy for deceiving congressional leadership with false statements regarding the delay in deployment of the D.C. National Guard to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” the report said.

Inspector general obstruction

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General issued a 2021 report that “knowingly and inaccurately placed blame on D.C. National Guard leadership,” the report said.

The OIG at times obstructed the work of the subcommittee, which detected an “inappropriately close relationship between the DoD Inspector General and DoD, which compromises the Inspector General’s ability to conduct objective oversight,” the report said.

The OIG interviewed 43 witnesses in the creation of its Jan. 6 report but “failed to interview key personnel from the DCNG who were heavily involved” in Jan. 6 planning, the report said. The OIG report made “alarming accusations” that Gen. Walker lied in his testimony during a March 2021 Senate hearing.

“Major General Walker’s testimony revealed information that is not favorable to Army staff and senior Pentagon officials, and thus DoD IG constructed their report to deliberately undermine the DCNG Commander’s sworn testimony,” the report said.

Loudermilk’s subcommittee held a hearing in April 2024 featuring four National Guard whistleblowers who called out the Department of Defense OIG Jan. 6 report as being riddled with falsehoods.

“As an oversight entity, the Subcommittee is simply highlighting the lack of independent and rigorous analysis by the DoD IG in their failure to interview the D.C. National Guard witnesses who have maintained a different account of DoD events on January 6, 2021,” the report said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!