Seemorerocks: Was the Capitol riot a "planned attack"?

John Solomon: Capitol Riot Was A "Planned Attack," Can't Blame Trump; What Did Pelosi and McConnell Know?

13 January, 2021

Investigative journalist John Solomon said the D.C. Metropolitan police has denied his news company's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to see the department's investigation into the Capitol Hill riot. In an interview with "Real America's Voice" host Eric Greitens on Wednesday, Solomon said police are keeping interviews with key capitol security officials secret because there is something "embarrassing."

The reporter said he would like to know what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the authorities knew about the attack beforehand. Solomon said he has "significant evidence" that the Capitol Police, FBI, and Congress had prior warning of a planned attack and it was not a spontaneous riot emanating from President Donald Trump's speech that day.

"The question I have is what did Nancy Pelosi, what did Mitch McConnell know about these threats beforehand?" he asked. "If they didn't know, it's an intelligence failure of the police. If they did know, there's something they didn't tell us before we went into this impeachment round today."

"What Nancy Pelosi knew and when did she know it is an important question," Solomon said. "It should have been answered before impeachment. What did Mitch McConnell knew? There's a Senate Sergeants of Arms. Same thing. Same relationship. The Capitol Police Chief reports to those two security officials, the Sergeants of Arms and up to the Speaker and the leaders of the House. We do not know what they know. And I think a week into this that is a gap into our knowledge that we should try to close."

"A few minutes after the impeachment went over, CNN matched our story this morning and said there is evidence of significant pre-planning," he said. "That would have been nice for the American people to know before their lawmakers voted on this impeachment proceeding."

JOHN SOLOMON, JUST THE NEWS: There is significant evidence beginning to emerge of three things. One, that the Capitol Police, the NYPD, the FBI all had prior warning there was going to be an attack on the Capitol...

How did the leaders of Congress react to this intel? Did it get to them? Did Nancy Pelosi know? Secondly, if this was a planned attack, you can't be a president of the United States being accused of inciting a spontaneous attack when it was planned days before. From an impeachment perspective and a factual security perspective, we're learning things and we shouldn't be in the posture of making final assignments of blame until we know what the facts are.

ERIC GREITENS, HOST: What are we learning? What's the latest right now that we know from the interviews that we're doing with investigators and with police?

JOHN SOLOMON, JUST THE NEWS: I've been told that some of the key security on the Capitol -- the Sergeants of Arms of the House and Senate and the Capitol Police Chief, all three who have resigned -- have had some contact, some sort of interviews with the Metropolitan Police Department which is the lead investigative agent now.

We FOIA'd those reports this morning and we got... a response almost instantly from the police department saying we're not releasing the information and here's why. It's going to be personally embarrassing, privacy-invading to release the information. It doesn't make sense. These were public officials. Their job was security. What they told police should be a matter of public record.

We're going to fight for those documents. But something tells me what's in those documents has some very, very big relevance to what happened on The Hill.

The question I have is what did Nancy Pelosi, what did Mitch McConnell know about these threats beforehand? If they didn't know, it's an intelligence failure of the police. If they did know, there's something they didn't tell us before we went into this impeachment round today.

CNN have been asking the question (to the extent they EVER ask questions) from an opposite direction.

Investigators pursuing signs

US Capitol riot was planned

CNN,

14 January, 2020

Evidence uncovered so far, including weapons and tactics seen on surveillance video, suggests a level of planning that has led investigators to believe the attack on the US Capitol was not just a protest that spiraled out of control, a federal law enforcement official says.

Among the evidence the FBI is examining are indications that some participants at the Trump rally at the Ellipse, outside the White House, left the event early, perhaps to retrieve items to be used in the assault on the Capitol.

A team of investigators and prosecutors are also focused on the command and control aspect of the attack, looking at travel and communications records to determine if they can build a case that is similar to a counterterrorism investigation, the official said.

The belief, early in the probe, will demand significant investigation.

The presence of corruption prosecutors and agents is in part because of their expertise in financial investigations. "We are following the money," the official said.

By Wednesday morning, the FBI reported that it had received more than 126,000 digital tips from the public regarding the attack on the Capitol -- more than three times the number of tips received on Monday.

Among the thousands of tips the FBI received are some that appear to show members of Congress with people who later showed up at the Capitol riot, two law enforcement officials said. This doesn't mean members of Congress and staff are under investigation, but the FBI is checking the veracity of the claims, the officials said.

Counterterrorism strategy for arrests

At least some of the arrests already made are part of a strategy used in counterterrorism investigations, to find even a minimal charge and try to take a person of concern off the streets. That helps ease the possible threat amid concern about possible attacks on the inauguration, officials believe.

On January 4, for example, local police arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, in Washington, DC.

Tarrio was taken into custody for allegedly burning a Black Lives Matter banner taken from a Black church last month during protests in the city after an earlier "Stop the Steal" rally. The Miami resident was charged with destruction of property related to the banner, however, federal authorities say they found Tarrio in possession of two high-capacity firearm magazines, prompting them to add a charge of Possession of High Capacity Feeding Device.

On Tuesday, federal authorities in New York City arrested Eduard Florea, 40, on at least one weapons charge after law enforcement, including the FBI and NYPD, responded to a Queens home in response to online postings about an armed caravan heading to the US Capitol, two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN.

Law enforcement sources told CNN that the man claims to be a Proud Boy and was arrested with live ammunition in the home.

Already, the public efforts by prosecutors and the FBI to encourage people who participated In the riot to turn themselves in is yielding fruit. Some attorneys have reached out to arrange for safe surrender of their clients in order to gain a measure of leniency and lessen the chance of a police raid on their homes, two officials said.

For instance, a counterterrorism prosecutor even appeared in court for an early hearing for one of the defendants on Tuesday, signaling how integrated the Justice Department's effort already is between the typical criminal prosecutors who handle initial criminal hearings and with the units focused on more complex crimes.

"With this strike force that was established to focus strictly on sedition charges, we're looking at in treating this just like a significant international counterterrorism or counterintelligence operation," DC US Attorney Michael Sherwin said Tuesday.

"We're looking at everything: money, travel records. Looking at disposition, movement, communication records. So no resource related to the FBI, or the US Attorney's Office will be unchecked in terms of trying to determine exactly if there was a command and control how it operated and how they executed these, these activities."