The U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the assault on the Capitol has concluded that the FBI and the country’s law enforcement agencies could have repelled the riot on January 6, 2021.
Former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy, the committee’s chief investigative counsel, has pointed to lapses in federal law enforcement, noting that security agencies should have acted on intelligence documents collected.
«(Trump) was the proximate cause: had it not been for his words and deeds, it would not have happened. That said, what happened on Capitol Hill was also affected by mistakes by law enforcement to put in place the extensive intelligence that was present prior to Jan. 6 on threats of violence,» Heaphy has explained.
In this regard, the top advisor to the investigation has stressed that «law enforcement played a very direct role in contributing to the security failures that led to the violence,» as he has stated in an interview to NBC.
Thus, he said that the Capitol was inadequately defended on January 6, not because of an intelligence error, but because intelligence showing that supporters of former President Donald Trump intended to go to Washington and use violence to prevent the certification of the election victory of the current president, Joe Biden, was not acted upon.
«There was a lot of advance intelligence about law enforcement, about carrying guns, about the vulnerability of Capitol Hill. The information beforehand was quite specific and, in our view, it was enough for law enforcement to do a better job,» he has said.
Investigators have further concluded that the Capitol Police did not deploy enough officers, as federal agencies did not spread «alarm about the threat» and were «overly cautious.» In addition, there was confusion about which federal agency was in charge, which hampered the response.
As a result, the committee has noted that the agencies made «a crucial mistake» in not issuing an intelligence bulletin about the threats, while reiterating that the response would have been very different «if the protesters were black.»
The FBI has defended itself, maintaining that it did everything it could in the incident, while the corps has asserted that it has learned lessons from the riots, intensifying security preparations,» according to statements to NBC.
«Since Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI has continually reviewed our processes, procedures and policies to evaluate lessons learned and make improvements in communication and information gathering, analysis and sharing,» he has explained.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
