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Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund turned heads with a shocking revelation during recent congressional testimony regarding a request to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S. Capitol Building ahead of then-President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 speech, which was followed by a riot.
Sund told lawmakers that three days before the incident, then-House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving rejected Sund’s request to deploy hundreds of Guard soldiers because Irving told him then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would “never go for it,” The Epoch Times reported.
Sund made his revelation to the House Oversight Committee during a 90-minute hearing, the outlet reported.
In his first testimony before a House committee since he was forced to resign on Jan. 8, two days after the incident — he wasn’t called at all to testify before Pelosi’s hand-picked Jan. 6 Committee — Sund explained how he was frustrated by the refusal of the offer of troops because their presence that day, he believes, would have been a “game-changer.”
The outlet added:
Mr. Sund said in meetings with Mr. Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger on Jan. 3, he had asked them to approve his request for National Guard soldiers to help secure the Capitol on Jan. 6. Mr. Irving and Mr. Stenger made up two-thirds of the Capitol Police Board, which oversees U.S. Capitol Police and had to approve any such requests.
He met first with Mr. Irving.
Sund explained that he went into Irving’s “office, again 9:24 in the morning … and immediately went up and said, ‘Hey, I’d like to bring in the National Guard to support me on, to assist me on the perimeter because when we have a joint session of Congress, it takes a lot of our personnel inside.’”
“But immediately, as soon as I asked him, his first response was: ‘I don’t know. I don’t like the optics of that,’” Sund testified. “And his second response was, ‘Besides, the intelligence doesn’t support it.’”
Irving then told Sund to go talk to Stenger, which he did around two hours later.
“‘You know, let’s come up with another idea,’” Sund said, quoting Stenger, who also suggested that the police chief reach out to the Pentagon to see how quickly Guard personnel could respond if needed.
“So I called [Army Gen.] William Walker, 6:14 p.m. that night,” Sund testified. “He told me they have 125 people assisting with COVID response. He could reallocate those fairly quickly once he got secretary of defense approval and send them over.”
“I said, ‘Mr. Stenger, you came up with that response fairly quickly for me to call General Walker,’” Sund testified. “And he told me Paul Irving had called him ahead of time and said: ‘Sund came here looking for the National, asking for the National Guard. We’ve got to come up with another plan. Pelosi will never go for it.'”
“I was floored by him saying that,” Sund told House lawmakers.
Trump has said in the past that Pelosi, as Speaker of the House, was in charge of security for the Capitol and that she refused an offer for National Guard troops.
“Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security. She turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had January 6,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker in September. “Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 soldiers.”
In August, Trump pleaded not guilty to charges filed by special counsel Jack Smith that he engaged in a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election.
