Numerous witnesses from the Secret Service previously testified, under oath, that they were caught off guard by the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But a trove of the agency’s communications, released Thursday during a hearing by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot, tells a different story.
“Their plan is to literally kill people,” one tipster wrote to the Secret Service on Dec. 26, 2020, two weeks before the riot. They were referring to the Proud Boys’ plans for Jan. 6. At that point, the group had already descended in the hundreds on the nation’s capital for two separate protests following the results of the 2020 election.
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“They think that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped,” the tipster continued, begging the agency to heed their warning about forthcoming violence—which was being organized in plain sight on pro-Trump forums like thedonald.win. “Please please take this tip seriously,” the person wrote.
The newly-acquired Secret Service communications, which total nearly 1.5 million messages, make clear that the agency had ample warning about possible threats of violence on Jan. 6, committee member Rep. Adam Schiff said Thursday.
“Certain White House and Secret Service witnesses previously testified they received no intelligence about violence that potentially threatened any of the protectees during January 6, including the vice president,” Schiff said. “Evidence strongly suggests this testimony is not credible and the committee is reviewing additional material from the Secret Service and other sources.”
On Dec. 31, according to documents obtained by the committee, the Secret Service circulated an intelligence brief stating that “Trump supporters have proposed a movement to occupy the Capitol.” The agency flagged particular spikes in hashtags such as #WeAreTheStorm, #1776Rebel and #OccupyCapitols as evidence.
On Jan. 4, the Secret Service received an intelligence bulletin warning about escalating calls online to “occupy government buildings,” including the Capitol, and for people to “arm themselves and to engage in political violence” on Jan. 6, according to communications obtained by the committee.
The Secret Service also received warning that some protesters would be armed. On Jan. 5, the agency circulated a post from thedonald.win in which someone threatened to bring a sniper rifle with them to Washington, D.C. “Sunday Gun Day providing Overwatch,” the person wrote. “Jan. 6 will be wild!!!”
Secret Service agents also casually discussed the potential for violence on the morning of Jan. 6 itself. At 10:22 a.m. that day, one agent wrote that Vice President Mike Pence would be “a dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing.” Twenty minutes later, another agent remarked that they’d seen “several other alerts saying that they will storm the capitol if he doesn’t do the right thing etc.”
Internal chats also revealed Secret Service agents casually discussing Trump’s tweet, fired off during the heat of the riot, about VP Pence confirming the results of the 2020 election. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done,” Trump tweeted.
“Potus just tweeted about Pence,” one agent wrote. “Probably not going to be good for pence.”
“Potus said he lacked courage,” another remarked. “Over 24K likes in under 2 mins.”
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