Security Officials Blame Poor Intel for Failure to Blunt Capitol Attack

WASHINGTON—Top officials responsible for the security of the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters told a congressional panel on Tuesday that faulty intelligence hampered their ability to prepare for the deadly riot.

Testifying before a joint bipartisan committee of senators, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned after the attack, blamed the disaster in part on what he called intelligence failures by federal law-enforcement agencies that supported predictions of a pro-Trump rally that day similar to recent ones in Washington. He also faulted excessive bureaucracy for delays in deploying the National Guard, though another top security official disputed specifics of his account.

“A clear lack of accurate and complete intelligence across several federal agencies contributed to this event, and not poor planning by the United States Capitol Police,” Mr. Sund said. “Based on the intelligence that we received, we planned for an increased level of violence at the Capitol and that some participants may be armed. But none of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred.”

In questioning, Mr. Sund also said he had never seen a Jan. 5 report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Norfolk, Va., field office that detailed specific threats for the following day, including a rallying call for war and the sharing of maps of the Capitol. He testified that he had only learned over the past 24 hours that his department had received it. On the eve of the attack, he added, he held a call with top law-enforcement officials, including the FBI. “Nothing was mentioned of it,” he said.

Washington’s acting police chief, Robert Contee, said the FBI could have done more to warn his agency. While the agency shared its report in an email on the evening of Jan. 5, he said, “I would certainly think that something as violent as the insurrection of the Capitol would warrant a phone call or something.” An FBI spokeswoman said the bureau followed “our normal process” and “collected and shared available intelligence prior to the events of Jan. 6.”

Tuesday’s hearing was organized by Sens. Gary Peters (D., Mich.) and Rob Portman (R., Ohio), the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and

Roy Blunt

(R., Mo.), chairwoman and ranking member of the Rules and Administration Committee.

The hearing is part of a wider bipartisan probe into the security failures that resulted in the breach of the Capitol by a mob of former President

Donald Trump’s

supporters that included members of far-right extremist groups. Five people died, including a rioter shot by police and a Capitol Police officer who succumbed a day later.

Four government watchdogs and several congressional committees are currently scrutinizing a law-enforcement response that amounts to one of the biggest lapses since the federal security apparatus was overhauled following the Sept. 11 attacks nearly two decades ago.

Republicans and Democrats said Congress needed to answer key questions to make the Capitol safe in the future, from why it took so long to call in the National Guard to whether there was credible intelligence about the attack before it happened.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) said the hearing could serve as an opening into a larger “commission-like effort” that would fully investigate the circumstances leading to the riot. House Speaker

Nancy Pelosi

(D., Calif.) has called for a 9/11-style commission to investigate what precipitated the security failure.

Former House Sergeant at Arms Paul D. Irving also blamed poor intelligence for the chaos on Jan. 6. In written testimony, he said the Capitol Police relies on intelligence from federal agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, “neither of which assessed or forecast a coordinated assault on the Capitol like the one that took place.”

Meanwhile, the Capitol Police’s own intelligence branch, in the days leading up to Jan. 6 and on the day itself, “issued a daily intelligence report in which it assessed the potential for civil disobedience and arrests as ‘remote’ to ‘improbable,’” Mr. Irving said.