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The Homeland Security intelligence branch faced scrutiny over the summer.
• 12 min read
US Capitol riots: Tracking the insurrection
On Jan. 6, rioters coming from a pro-Trump rally broke into the U.S. Capitol, resulting in deaths, injuries, arrests and vandalism.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
In the months leading up to Wednesday s deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Trump administration gutted a key federal agency responsible for funneling intelligence and threat assessments to law enforcement partners across the country, two federal officials with direct knowledge told ABC News.
As a result, officials said, the information vacuum left behind may have deprived law enforcement in Washington, D.C., of a key avenue for actionable warnings that could have helped officers prepare for the inbound threat posed by right-wing extremists who gathered on the National Mall on Wednesday.
Despite a heavy-handed military presence at earlier protests, there were no troops in evidence at the Capitol when it was overrun yesterday by pro-Trump rioters. Currently, 834 Guard troops are operational across DC, 741 of them guarding the Capitol and 93 manning traffic checkpoints.
By
Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on January 07, 2021 at 1:57 PM
Mixed reports about Vice President Pence’s role in deploying the National Guard to respond to the siege raised questions about whether the chain of command was broken Wednesday, though the Pentagon insists it never was.
Meanwhile, Trump still has the authority to call up troops to quell civil unrest, in addition to nearly unchecked powers to launch a nuclear weapon, and tensions with global hot spots such as Iran could still flare up in the next two weeks.
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The national security concerns are contributing to calls for Trump’s removal from office, one way or the other, before President-elect Joe Biden