Senate report omits Trump’s role in Capitol riots, reveals new details on security failure

The US Capitol Police had specific intelligence about then-President Donald Trump supporters’ plan to breach the Capitol weeks ahead of January 6, according to new findings in a bipartisan Senate report. However, they failed to fully incorporate this information into all of its internal assessments about Capitol riots, the report said.

The Senate Rules and Administration and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees jointly prepared the report which focuses on the security, planning and response failures related to the violent attack on the US Capitol. It uncovered a number of failures leading up to and on January 6 that allowed for the Capitol to be breached.

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According to the report, the failures ranged from federal intelligence agencies failing to warn of a potential for violence to a lack of planning and inadequate preparation by the US Capitol Police and law enforcement. Notably, the report has omitted any examination of Trump’s role in the attack. Quoting people familiar with the matter, CNN reported that the language had to be carefully crafted in the quest for bipartisanship.

“Did we look at Trump’s role in the attack? The answer is no. The report did not attempt to look at the origins and development of the groups or individuals that participated in the attack on the Capitol,” a Senate committee aide was quoted by CNN as saying.

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Here are some of the key findings of the report:

• The federal intelligence community, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), did not warn of a potential for violence on January 6.
• Interagency Coordination Division, an intelligence component of US Capitol Police, failed to convey the full scope of threat information they possessed.
• US Capitol Police were not adequately prepared to prevent or respond to the January 6 security threats, which contributed to the breach of the Capitol.
• Opaque processes and a lack of emergency authority delayed requests for National Guard assistance.
• Due to intelligence failures, coupled with the Capitol Police Board’s failure to request National Guard assistance prior to January 6, the District of Columbia National Guard (DCNG) was not activated, staged, and prepared to quickly respond to an attack on the Capitol.
• The Department of Defense (DOD) required time to approve the request and gather, equip, and instruct its personnel on the mission, which resulted in additional delays.