In a new interview with Tucker Carlson, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he was denied intelligence in advance of Jan. 6 by multiple U.S. intelligence agencies, including that several federal agents would be among the crowd of protesters. In addition, he said, the Pentagon rejected his "urgent" appeal for National Guard support when the Capitol was under siege.
Sund said the FBI and Department of Homeland Security had privately expressed concern of possible violence breaking out during the “Stop the Steal” rally, but excluded him from the loop. They did not include such information in their intelligence assessments nor inform Sund of their concerns in order to prevent the violence.
Shortly after noon on Jan. 6, Sund said he placed calls to the security commands of the U.S. House and Senate appealing for National Guard support. After multiple followup calls he received approval at 2:09 p.m. But he was then told the Pentagon would have to approve.
On a call at 2.34 p.m., Sund said he appealed to Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt: "I need the National Guard immediately. This is an urgent, urgent situation."
Sund told Carlson that Piatt repeatedly responded he did not like the “optics” of the National Guard on Capitol Hill. At that point, Sund received word that Ashli Babbit had been shot.
"We have shots fired. Is that urgent enough for you now?" he asked.
"Do you know when the National Guard finally arrived?" Sund asked Carlson. "6 p.m."
Pentagon "resources" were however deployed to officers' homes, Sund said, but not to protect the Capitol. Later, he added, troops were photographed with the Capitol in the background for military publications.
“This sounds like a setup to me, I’m sorry, it does,” Carlson said. “Look, under pressure people make mistakes and make bad decisions. But you’re describing a systematic denial of intelligence and then of support, defense, through a whole bunch of different agencies, a whole bunch of different people, all reaching the same baffling conclusion that we’re not going to protect the Capitol.”
“Think about it. I am the chief of police at the United States Capitol, probably one of the most prominent and should be the most secure building in the United States and the world. You know, you’d like to think of that,” Sund said. “But when you look at it, and don’t take my word for it, look at, there’s now at least four congressional reports talking about the intelligence failure, IG reports, GAO reports talking about various intelligence failures. But coming into it, you know, think about it. FBI, the Washington Field Office didn’t put out a single document, a single official document specific to January 6.”
“I’ve been through many other events in Washington, D.C. — FBI would host a joint conference call at the least and maybe an executive JTTF, Joint Terrorism Task Force briefing or, and for all these big events, DHS and FBI would get together and put out something that was called JIB — Joint Intelligence Bulletin. Zero for January 6.”
Intelligence showed that several individuals dubbed as "domestic terrorists" would be "coming to this event, so of course they're going to have resources and they're not going to just put in one agent. You're going to have multiple," Sund said. "I don't know how many they actually had in there. That would be regular, standard police work, so I wouldn't be surprised by that. But not to share that intelligence? That's concerning."
Sund had been interviewed by Carlson while he was still at Fox News and it was slated to air on the day that Carlson was fired, reports have noted.
Sund also said he saw video of Ray Epps whispering to a protester on Jan. 6 just minutes before that protester attacked Capitol Police officers.
Milley was aware of alleged threats made against members of Congress during the Jan. 6 protest and did not tell Sund, the ex-chief said.
"Gen. Milley, you know, we're now finding out, and it's not from me; this is from Carol Leonning, investigative reporter with The Washington Post. He was using Dataminr on his own coming across intelligence," Sund said. Using real-time artificial intelligence, Dataminr "detects the earliest signals of high-impact events and emerging risks from within publicly available data," according to the platform.
"It's not something your average citizen would have on their computer," Sund said. "It's an intelligence platform."
Milley used that platform to learn that individuals allegedly may have wanted to kill members of Congress.
"He's picking up intelligence talking about killing members of Congress and attacking the United States Capitol," according to Sund. "He's not telling me. He's telling select members of Congress."
"That's concerning as hell because...there's a duty to warn there, and I should be told, so I can take the necessary action. I don't know who else he was telling, but he sure wasn't telling me."
On Jan. 7, Pelosi called for Sund's resignation.
Ep. 15 Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund reveals what really happened on January 6th. Our Fox News interview with him never aired, so we invited him back. pic.twitter.com/opDlu4QGlp
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 10, 2023
Free Press International
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