About two hours after a pro-Trump mob broke windows and smashed doors to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, then-Vice President Mike Pence called the acting secretary of defense to urgently seek help around the federal building. to secure. according to newly unveiled documents.
“Clean up the Capitol,” Pence told Christopher Miller while locked up in a secure facility, according to a previously released document compiled by the Pentagon and obtained by the Associated Press.
Pence asked Miller for a deadline for the building to be safe.
But it would take hours before the order was restored, according to the timeline of events in the document.
The rioters attacked the Capitol when a joint session of Congress convened to confirm President Biden’s 2020 election college.
Former President Donald Trump, who addressed his supporters at the Ellipse earlier in the day over his allegations of electoral fraud, was in the White House.
At about 2:10 p.m., the first rioters began breaking through the doors and windows of the Senate.
Capitol police chief Steven Sund called Major General William Walker, commander-in-chief of the DC National Guard, and asked for at least 200 guards.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy discussed the request with the mayor and Pentagon leaders for the next 20 minutes, while senators scrambled to safety and the rioters broke into the room.
Just after 3 p.m., McCarthy gave a ‘verbal approval’ that 1100 guard troops could be activated to support DC police, and an emergency response force left Joint Base Andrews to DC – but he still had final approval. of Miller required.
About twenty minutes later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Chuck Schumer were telephoning to get help from the guard and the military, the documents show.
“We need help,” Schumer said.
They were told that the guard had been approved. But in reality, military and police officers struggled to implement the plan – the guard troops were only prepared for traffic duties and needed more preparation before embarking on the violent siege.
At 15:44 Schumer pleaded again.
“Tell POTUS to tweet everyone should leave,” he told officials.
Pence brought his one-moment call to Miller at 4:08 p.m.
About ten minutes later, Trump tweeted to his followers to “go home and go in peace.”
By 4:30 p.m., Walker had permission to send the guard to the Capitol. Ten minutes later, Pelosi and Schumer were telephonic with the Pentagon’s leadership and asked that the perimeter be secured.
The congress leaders accused during the 30-minute call that “the National Security Service knows that protesters are planning to assault the Capitol”, the documents read, according to the AP.
The first of 155 members of the guard finally started arriving at the Capitol at 17:20 and order was only restored in the Capitol at 20:00.