In its latest effort to implicate former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the violence on Capitol Hill last year, the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 revealed Meadows had been warned about the potential for unrest preceding the riot. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been warned too, and refused multiple requests to prepare.
Meadows, according to former advisor Cassidy Hutchinson, who was subpoenaed by the committee, was cautioned about the possibility of violence on Jan. 6 surrounding the president’s protests.
“I know that there were concerns brought forward to Mr. Meadows,” Hutchinson told panel investigators in March. “I know that people had brought information forward to him that had indicated that there could be violence on the 6th. But, again, I’m not sure if he — what he did with that information.”
The testimony was revealed in a 248-page court filing from the probe’s attorneys in an ongoing legal drama between Meadows and the Select Committee over White House records.
The committee’s revelation made headline news across legacy outlets, amplifying the probe’s discovery as an indictment against a primary target of the regime’s investigation in routine fashion.
“Meadows Was Warned Jan. 6 Could Turn Violent, House Panel Says,” read The New York Times.
“Meadows was warned Jan. 6 could turn violent, former White House official says,” headlined another article in NBC.
“Meadows was warned of violence before Jan. 6, new court filings show,” The Washington Post wrote in front-page news as a “most read” column Saturday morning.
If the revelation that Meadows was told violence might occur surrounding the protest of a politically sensitive subject is a major scandal, however, perhaps the committee should probe why Pelosi denied requests to deploy the National Guard up to six times.
In December, the initial trove of Meadows’ documents published by the Select Committee revealed Meadows pledged the National Guard would be ready to maintain order. The records illustrate a White House chief of staff who was far from dismissive of violent threats as depicted by the committee investigating Jan. 6.
“Mr. Meadows sent an email to an individual about the events on January 6 and said that the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro Trump people’ and that many more would be available on standby,” the Select Committee wrote. Panel members framed the material as an unearthed scandal — but it now undermines its latest made-up scandal four months later.
In fact, nearly everyone in Washington knew about the potential for political unrest to break out at the climax of a violent election cycle. Even the Capitol Hill parking attendants warned about the hazard.
“Due to the possibility of large-scale public protests, access to the Capitol Plaza will be restricted,” read an email from the House Parking Team on the eve of the riot obtained by The Federalist. “For the safety and security of personnel on the House campus, we ask that staff strongly consider parking in the Cannon and Longworth House Underground Garages.”
That Meadows, a former four-term member of Congress, would be totally oblivious to the idea that mass protests might deteriorate into an uproar is negligent thinking.
Whereas Meadows was a White House bureaucrat involved in the planning of a peaceful demonstration on the Ellipse, Pelosi possessed the authority to adequately prepare for what was to come on Capitol Hill, and she deliberately refused.
According to former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, the agency requested Speaker Pelosi approve the deployment of the National Guard six times ahead of the Jan. 6 riot. Sund said House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, who works under Pelosi, thought the deployment was bad “optics” two days prior. Pelosi and House Democrats had previously condemned the use of federal troops in Washington to quell the violent mobs terrorizing the city.
The speaker’s deputies on the Select Committee investigating the attack, however, have publicly stated no interest in probing Pelosi’s own culpability.
“If you look at the charge that we have in the resolution, it says the facts and circumstances around January 6. I don’t see the speaker being part and parcel to that,” Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told CNN last year.
