A new bipartisan Senate report outlines the security failures leading up to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Still, it does not examine former President Donald Trump’s role in the events.
The report addresses the “security, planning, and response failures” of entities responsible for Capitol security as well as several federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Department of Defense (DOD).
“The Committees’ investigation uncovered a number of intelligence and security failures leading up to and on January 6 that allowed for the breach of the Capitol,” the report reads.
It continues, “These breakdowns range from federal intelligence agencies failing to warn of a potential for violence to a lack of planning and preparation by USCP and law enforcement leadership.”
The report examined a number of security failures including the federal intelligence community’s failure to issue a threat assessment warning of potential violence, the failure on the part of the United States Capitol Police (USCP) to “convey the full scope of threat information they possessed” and not being prepared to prevent or respond to the security threats ahead of January 6.
CNN’s Whitney Wild, law enforcement correspondent for the network, also pointed out intelligence officials struggled with “deciding what was just free speech… and what actually constituted a threat.”
A new Senate report reveals previously unknown details about the stunning security breakdowns ahead of the Jan. 6 riot. There are also several glaring omissions in the report, including any examination of Donald Trump’s role in the riots.https://t.co/J1FLbynebl pic.twitter.com/4bFkdlrjFk
— CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish (@CNNThisMorning) June 8, 2021
Another issue the Capitol Police ran into had to do with equipment.
Wild explained, “There were really only a handful of officers who had appropriate riot gear. Some of the officers had riot gear that was stored in a bus. When they went to access it, the bus was locked.”
CNN noted the report omitted any examination of the former president’s alleged role in the insurrection. Sources also told the outlet the language had to be carefully considered and could not include the word “insurrection.”
A Senate committee aide told reporters, “Did we look at Trump’s role in the attack? The answer is no.”
They added, “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.”
The report offered recommendations to address the issues, including making improvements to training, equipment, intelligence collection, and operational planning.
According to CNN, congressional investigators examined thousands of documents, received written statements from 50 Capitol police officers, and gathered testimony from current and former officials involved in security.
The Democrats and Republicans leading the investigation participated in an interview with CBS News where they shared what surprised them most about the investigation.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said, “How long it took the Defense Department to respond.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) replied, “Sadly it was the frontline officers who were left to defend us, to defend our staff, and to defend democracy.”
She also acknowledged more needs to be done, “Our country needs this 9/11-style commission to get to the bottom of all this. While the prosecutions are going on you could be looking at the causes and everything, but our mission right now was to protect this Capitol going forward.”
The Capitol Police responded to the report in a statement, saying it “agrees improvements are needed specific to intelligence analysis and dissemination.”
It added, “At no point prior to the 6th did it receive actionable intelligence about a large-scale attack.”
The report comes just weeks after Senate Republicans blocked a bill to establish an independent commission to investigate the events on January 6.
