Asked by 62-year-old Acting Atty. Gen. Jeffrey A. Rosen to investigate the colossal failure by Capitol and Washington, D.C. police to control the runaway Jan. 6 riot and mob scene at the Capitol, 58-year-old Department of Justice Michael E. Horowitz has his work cut out for him. When Sept. 11 blindsided everyone in the U.S. intel and law enforcement community, it forced a sober inventory of what went wrong. While on a much smaller scale, the Jan. 6 mob scene could have been prevented with some advanced planning, working with Capitol Hill police, D.C. police and the National Guard to have prevented troublemakers from breaching the Capitol and disrupting the lawful business of certifying the Electoral College vote. While Horowitz digs into his assignment, the Democrat-controlled House rushed to judgment, impeaching 74-year-old President Donald Trump for a second time Jan. 13.
Acting swiftly to punish Trump, 80-year-old House Speaker weaponized her Article 1 impeachment authority to hold the president accountable for the Jan. 6 riot that caused much distress to members of Congress, forced for hours into locked safe areas in the Capitol’s basement. Blaming Trump satisfied the immediate urge of House Democrats and some Republicans but it didn’t come close to figuring out what went wrong with Capitol Hill and D.C. police. Horowitz now has the unenviable task of figuring out the breakdown in security, leaving five dead and many others traumatized by the mob scene called “incitement of insurrection.” Torturing logic and accepted definitions, Pelosi insists the riot was an “insurrection or revolt designed by Trump supporters to overthrow the U.S. government. Pelosi used loaded language to get her colleagues to convict Trump of “insurrection.”
Horowitz will probably not answer the basic question of whether or not the Jan. 6 riot was a bona fide “insurrection” or just a runaway mob scene all too common on American streets in 2020. “The DOJ OIG [Office of Inspector General] also will assess whether there are an weaknesses in the DOJ protocols, policies or procedures that adversely affected the ability of DOJ or its components to prepare effectively for and respond to events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6,” read the DOJ press release. What’s abundantly clear is the Capitol and D.C. police dropped the ball when it came to preparation for the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to count the Electoral College votes. DOJ doesn’t not control the Capitol or D.C. police but will focus on DOJ leadership and the FBI, both under DOJ control. IGs from Interior Department, Homeland Security and Defense Department will also review security protocols.
Congress was left helpless, unable to maintain security when the crowd overwhelmed Capitol police on the day Congress met in joint session to certify the Electoral College vote. Whatever IG Horowitz finds, he’ll compare notes with Congress also launching its own investigation of Jan. 6 security failure. Pelosi invoked her Article 1 authority to charge Trump in an article of impeachment with “incitement of insurrection,” a term inflaming passions, suggesting that Trump ordered his followers to overthrow the U.S. government. YouTube has video of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech in which he asked his audience to “fight” for their rights while the march peacefully to the Capitol. At no time did Trump tell anyone to storm the Capitol or break any laws. Yet Pelosi and other House members charge Trump with “incitement of insurrection,” accusing him of trying to topple the U.S. government.
Horowitz will no doubt look carefully at the FBI’s role in the Jan. 6, at the moment looking like they dropped the ball. Horowitz will conduct a “multidisciplinary review” this month “to determine the DOD’s roles, responsibilities, and actions to prepare for, and respond to, the planned protest and its aftermath at the U.S. Capitol campus and Jan. 6, 2021,” read the IG’s announcement. Preparing now for the Jan. 20 inauguration, the FBI has taken the lead coordinating with federal law enforcement and the National Guard to prevent another mob scene at the inauguration. Meeting a pre-inauguration security briefing, 54-year-old FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed over 100 arrests with 200 more under review, calling the Jan. 6 incident, “an unruly, violent mob,” not, as Pelosi insisted, an “insurrection.” Wray knows insurrection involves weapons used against the ruling authority.
Unlike the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, Jan. 20’s inauguration will be far more prepared to deal with any mob-related contingency. More than 20,000 members of the National Guard will set a massive cordon for at least a mile radius around the Capitol, preventing troublemakers from getting close to the festivities. Horowitz has his work cut out for him figuring out what failed on Jan. 6. With the FBI warning about violent right wing protests in D.C. and in capitals around the country, they’re obviously far better prepared for any contingency on Inauguration Day. Had the DOJ or FBI given any attention to Jan. 6, they could have easily prevented the melee that Pelosi and other Democrat-and-Republicans called an “insurrection.” No one called race riots over the 2020 summer an “insurrection.” Following FBI Director Wray’s description as an “unruly, violent mob,” no one tried to overthrow the U.S. government.
