A bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday revealed that Capitol Police and other authorities had more alarming intelligence in late December 2020 than previously documented.
- “Surround every building with a tunnel entrance/exit. They better dig a tunnel all the way to China if they want to escape,” wrote one user on a pro-Trump blog.
- “Bring guns. It’s now or never,” another user wrote.
- The night before the riot, Capitol Police shared a tip received by the FBI National Threat Operations Center, of a “significant uptick” in new visitors to a website called WashingtonTunnels.com.
- The website also contained comments that demonstrators should surround every building with a tunnel entrance or exit, be prepared to drag down police, and that they could “enter the Capitol as the Third Continental Congress and certify the Trump Electors.”
Capitol Police issued a statement that welcomed the report’s analysis, but defended the agency’s reaction.
“The USCP consumes intelligence from every federal agency. At no point prior to the 6th did it receive actionable intelligence about a large-scale attack,” the agency said.
The nearly 100-page report stuck to the security preparation and response, without delving into the motivations of the attackers or the rally preceding it — which might have been addressed by a 9/11-style commission.
The reported cited Donald Trump’s speech before the riot, but didn’t conduct any assessment of the former guy’s involvement.
