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Shortly before the pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Secret Service agents fought to secure a caravan route so that then-President Donald Trump could accompany his supporters as they marched. in Congress to demand that he remain in power. according to two people informed about the accounts of the witnesses to the investigators of the Congress.
The turbulent events of that day followed almost two weeks of persistent pressure from Trump on the Secret Service to devise a plan to join his supporters on a march to the Capitol from the park near the White House where he was. leader a demonstration that he predicted would be “wild.”
The agency had rejected Trump’s first pleas, but January 6’s hasty effort to accommodate the president came when Secret Service staff heard Trump asking his audience of about 30,000 people to leave. at the Capitol while suggesting that he would join them. His mission was clear, he said: to pressure “weak” Republicans to refuse to accept the election results that made Joe Biden the next president.
“Let’s walk to the Capitol,” he told the crowd.
Witnesses told the House Committee on Jan. 6 that immediately after Trump made that comment, Secret Service agents contacted DC police to block intersections, according to witnesses. Police officials declined as they were stretched out because they were overseeing numerous protests and then helping with a growing crowd at the Capitol, people said. A senior law enforcement official told the Washington Post that the president’s retail leader slammed the idea as unsustainable and insecure.
A DC official confirmed Tuesday that the Secret Service called for help from DC police with a presidential caravan on Jan. 6.
“We were asked and the answer was no,” said Dora Taylor-Lowe, a spokeswoman for the DC deputy mayor who oversees the police department.
The testimony, which could be presented during high-profile hearings to begin this week by the House committee on Jan. 6, indicates that several days before his speech, Trump had been anxious to join supporters in a march. to the Capitol. No permission had been issued for this march, although some Trump allies promoted a march on far-right social media platforms as a way to pressure Congress not to certify Biden’s election victory.
Trump previously told The Post that his desire to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6 was blocked by the Secret Service. But Trump’s early insistence on joining a march had not been previously reported, nor was it publicly known that Secret Service officials were considering taking steps to transport him there just as the chaotic events were about to unfold. if.
The new details also reflect a growing focus by the House committee on whether the Trump White House could have tried to drag this civil service agency in search of the president to block the peaceful transfer of power. Five people were killed and more than 100 policemen were injured when rioters entered the Capitol.
A Secret Service spokesman said Trump’s security agents never formalized a plan to take Trump from the White House to the Capitol.
“On January 6, the Secret Service did not secure a caravan route for President Trump to travel to the Capitol after the Ellipse demonstration,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. “Secret Service staff assigned to the president’s retailer told administration officials that proposed travel plans to visit the Capitol on Jan. 6 would not be feasible.”
Guglielmi said the agency is cooperating fully with the request for information and documents from congressional investigators on planning the Secret Service for Trump’s moves that day. He said the agency conducted a thorough search of its internal records that found it had no operational plans to move Trump to the Capitol.
A Trump spokesman did not respond to requests for comment Monday and Tuesday.
In addition to investigating Trump’s repeated press for the Secret Service to let him join the march, the committee has been investigating whether Trump and his aides played any role in encouraging the Secret Service to remove Vice President Mike Pence. of the Capitol after the building was. was attacked by Trump supporters, and before Pence had overseen the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, according to people informed about the investigation.
In an April interview with The Post, Trump regretted not marching on the U.S. Capitol the day his supporters stormed the building. He said he was pressured to join the march that day, but that he was stopped for his security detail.
“The secret service didn’t let me down,” Trump said. “I wanted to go there. I really wanted to go. The secret service says you can’t go. I should have been there in a minute. “
In the interview, Trump defended his incendiary comments urging his supporters to come to Washington and then march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
“I said patriotically and peacefully,” he said. He added that he offered up to 10,000 soldiers and members of the National Guard to the Capitol and the city through his Department of Defense, but President Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) And Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) they turned down the offer.
“If I wanted to do something, I wouldn’t recommend soldiers,” Trump said.
Trump’s first public statement on Jan. 6 to his loyal followers came in a Dec. 19 tweet. He encouraged his supporters to gather in Washington to protest what he called elections manipulated with these words: “Be there. It will be wild!”
Days later, according to witnesses on the committee, Trump was pressuring his aides to help him stir up a protest directly in front of the Capitol.
Around New Year’s Eve, Trump’s aides met with Tony Ornato, a Secret Service official who was temporarily acting as deputy chief of staff in the White House, the president’s desire to set up a caravan. on Jan. 6 alongside protesters marching on the Capitol, according to eyewitness accounts and a senior law enforcement official.
Ornato recommended that Trump’s aides contact Trump’s secret service leader around Jan. 4, law enforcement officials said. Secret Service officials were very skeptical that they could safely bring Trump to the Capitol based on a similar experience they had at a “Stop the Steal” rally in central Washington on Nov. 14, according to witnesses. Trump had thrilled his loyal supporters at the November rally when his caravan appeared on Pennsylvania Avenue shortly after 10 p.m. Fans rushed to Freedom Plaza in downtown DC to see them. Trump had pressed his safety detail to make the detour to ride alongside the crowd, just before heading to his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
Ornato and Trump’s detail leader considered the Nov. 14 caravan a possible catastrophe, due to the proximity of Trump’s limousine to uncontrolled members of the public, according to two people reported on the talks.
“And they really didn’t want me to go,” one of the people said. Trump’s retail leader told senior White House staff that this caravan plan during an even bigger rally in January was unsafe and shouldn’t happen.
On the morning of Jan. 6, many members of the secret service believed they were doing an “inside and out”: taking Trump to the Ellipse stage and then to the White House, according to witnesses. They were caught unawares when Trump did what they considered a surprise announcement, according to a senior law enforcement official.
“We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore,” he said, adding later. “So we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue and we’re going to the Capitol.”
Some caravan agents quickly called their DC police contacts to see if they could get help securing a caravan route, witnesses said. Police officers responded that they were tense providing reinforcements to Capitol police and controlling security checks around the multiple rallies that day.
The president’s security chief intervened to cancel the effort and told senior White House staff that moving the president to the Capitol would be too risky, a senior law enforcement official said.