Rosen, for his part, is expected to tell lawmakers that the Justice Department “took appropriate precautions” ahead of the riot by putting tactical and other elite units on standby after local police reports indicated that 10,000 to 30,000 people were expected at rallies and protests.
Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “Our hearing will provide the American people the first opportunity to hear from top Trump Administration officials about the catastrophic intelligence and security failures that enabled this unprecedented terrorist attack on our nation’s Capitol,” the committee’s chair, Rep. The Capitol Police have faced criticism for being badly overmatched, the FBI for failing to share with sufficient urgency intelligence suggesting a possible “war” at the Capitol, and the Defense Department for an hourslong delay in getting support to the complex despite the violent, deadly chaos unfolding on TV. The sessions so far have featured finger-pointing about missed intelligence, poor preparations and an inadequate law enforcement response. Miller will be the most senior Pentagon official to participate in hearings on the riot. Miller also denies that former President Donald Trump, criticized for failing to forcefully condemn the rioters, had any involvement in the Defense Department’s response. “I was committed to avoiding repeating these scenarios,” he says. The Defense Department has “an extremely poor record in supporting domestic law enforcement,” including during civil rights and Vietnam War protests in the 1960s and 1970s and the fatal shooting 51 years ago of four students at Kent State University by Ohio National Guard members, Miller says in his prepared remarks.įired Kansas baseball coach gives his take on racial slur incident
Miller will say he was determined that the military have only limited involvement, a perspective he says was shaped by criticism of the aggressive response to the civil unrest that roiled American cities months earlier, as well as decades-old episodes that ended in violence. Miller will be joined by former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who is also testifying for the first time about the Justice Department’s role in the run-up to the riot.
RIOT CIVIL UNREST TROPHIES SERIES
His testimony, in the latest in a series of congressional hearings centered on the riot, is aimed at rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to arrive even as pro-Trump rioters violently breached the building and stormed inside.