Exclusive: Pentagon Delayed Guard Deployment On Jan. 6

Federal bureaucrats within the Department of Defense (DoD) delayed the deployment of the National Guard on Jan. 6, 2021 and covered it up, according to a House Republican investigation of government conduct related to the Capitol riot.

On Thursday, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who is leading a review of the work completed by the partisan Jan. 6 probe run by then-Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, sent a letter to the inspector general for the Department of Defense demanding a correction to an agency report published in November 2021.

“This report was the final product of the DoD IG’s review into the events of January 6, and reviewed how the DoD responded to requests for support as the events unfolded,” Loudermilk, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight for the House Administration Committee, wrote. “Throughout the Subcommittee’s extensive investigation into the failures of January 6, 2021, we have discovered numerous flaws and inaccuracies in the report that your office has yet to appropriately address.”

Such flaws and inaccuracies, however, may have been part of a partisan cover-up after GOP lawmakers discovered the Pentagon was responsible for delays in guard deployment.

“After a thorough examination of emails and documents, including letters, memorandums, agreements, plans, orders, reports, briefings, statements made in congressional hearings, closed-door testimony to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (‘Select Committee’), and closed-door testimony made to the DoD IG,” Loudermilk wrote, “the Subcommittee’s investigation has concluded that the Department of Defense intentionally delayed the deployment of the DC [National Guard] to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

“Furthermore,” Loudermilk added, “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.”

Loudermilk wrote the agency excluded testimony from myriad officials who blamed then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy for his failure to properly communicate with the National Guard over Jan. 6. Then-President Donald Trump had ordered 10,000 troops to be on standby for the day of electoral certification, a fact covered up by the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 which was eager to depict an apathetic commander-in-chief relishing in the violence at the Capitol.

In the days leading up to Jan. 6, Cheney had organized an op-ed by former defense secretaries days to preemptively condemn troop mobilization. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who was House speaker at the time, had also objected to the National Guard’s preemptive deployment multiple time due to the “optics” of additional federal troops in the capital.

Kash Patel, who was chief of staff for the Department of Defense, wrote in March for The Federalist, “For over three years, I have done countless media interviews, answered numerous subpoenas, and testified before congressional committees and grand juries about the 45th president’s actions regarding the National Guard in the lead-up to Jan. 6, 2021.”

“Unfortunately for the propaganda press, the truth never changed, nor did any of my testimony,” Patel wrote. “Indeed, Donald Trump authorized at least 10,000 National Guard troops days before Jan. 6 in the Oval Office with the secretary of defense, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, chief of staff to President Trump, me, and others present. Pursuant to that authorization, senior DOD officials were dispatched to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office and the Capitol Police. Each of our respective testimonials, under oath, confirms this key fact.”

Loudermilk requested the Defense Department inspector general correct its 2021 report regarding the National Guard’s deployment “to ensure the accurate preservation of historical records.”

Read the full letter from Rep. Loudermilk below:

11.21.2024 Loudermilk DOD I… by The Federalist

Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and the co-author of “Fat and Unhappy: How ‘Body Positivity’ Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself).” He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here. Buy “Fat and Unhappy” here.