'Seconds mattered': In Capitol under siege, DC National Guard waited 3 hours for Pentagon approval
Snopes: Did Trump Defense Secretary ‘Disarm’ DC National Guard Before Insurrection?
Claim
On Jan. 4, 2021, two days before Trump supporters rioted in the U.S. Capitol, former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller issued a memo that "disarmed" D.C. National Guard.
The document purportedly written by a Trump appointee did not order any person or entity to take away weapons from Guard members. Rather, it required McCarthy, who oversees the DCNG, to request approval from the defense secretary in order for Guard members to use weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents — as well as to share equipment with other law-enforcement agencies — during the preplanned gatherings of Trump supporters on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6.
Origin
Why no rating on this article? This is a trending topic but has not yet been rated by Snopes for reasons we’ll outline below.
To recap our analysis so far, the claim stemmed, in part, from reporting by Broadwater, a New York Times journalist, who said Miller issued a memo that prohibited DCNG from using weapons during the upcoming pro-Trump events without his approval first.
While no evidence exists to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the document displayed in the tweet, we sought to independently verify its authenticity. Citing the
Freedom of Information Act, Snopes on Feb. 3 submitted a request for a copy of the Jan. 4 record from record-keeping centers within the National Guard and Department of Defense. The agencies have not yet fulfilled that request.
Additionally, we reached out to Broadwater to learn where, how, or under what circumstances he obtained the document. He told us “it was a leak,” or that an anonymous person or group within government or law-enforcement released the document to The New York Times.
Any time we would employ troops and guardsmen in the city, you had to go through a rigorous process. As you recall, there were events in the summer that got a lot of attention, and that was part of this,” William J. Walker, the DCNG’s commanding general, said in an interview with
The Washington Post, which also reported on the Jan. 4 memo from Miller. Walker was referring to the guidelines (like those in the memo) that required the highest-level approval for the Guard to fully launch into law-enforcement mode.
As a result of such restrictions, Walker told The Washington Post that when he received a panicked phone call from Capitol Hill Police about the extremists preparing to break into the Capitol on Jan. 6 (which occurred around 1:50 p.m., per the defense department’s timeline) he could not immediately deploy Guard members to help. He instead needed to wait for approval from McCarthy, who then waited for an answer from Miller. At 3 p.m, Miller approved full activation of the DCNG (1,100 members) to help district and Capitol Hill police and directed those troops to secure the Capitol,
the department’s timeline showed.
Response
In sum, a reputable news outlet and a New York Times journalist corroborated the claim that Miller issued a Jan. 4 memo that required Guard leaders to seek prior approval before using weapons during the pro-Trump protests. It was an inaccurate portrayal of that purported order to claim that the Trump appointee “disarmed” — or took weapons away from — Guard members before the demonstrations, like The National Memo alleged.
However, until federal agencies fulfill our FOIA request for the document in question, we cannot authoritatively rate this claim with a traditional Snopes rating. If we receive more information, we will update this post.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/national-guard-capitol-riot/
