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Governing body of the United States Capitol Police
Coverage by fact-checkers and contemporaneous reporting shows that the decision to call the National Guard on January 6, 2021, was made by the Capitol Police Board and Pentagon officials, not unilater...
Available sources show no record that President Trump formally ordered 10,000–20,000 National Guard troops to the U.S. Capitol before or on January 6, 2021; multiple fact‑checks and official timelines...
Nancy Pelosi did not possess unilateral authority to activate the National Guard for the Capitol on January 6, 2021; decisions involved the Capitol Police Board, the House Sergeant at Arms, and reques...
The Speaker of the House does not have legal authority to activate the National Guard; only federal officials — the President, the Secretary of Defense and, in some accounts, the Secretary of the Army...
Available reporting shows President Donald Trump discussed and floated deploying National Guard forces around January 6, 2021, but there is no consensus in the record that he specifically ordered troo...
Newly released footage shows then‑Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying “I take responsibility” for security failures on Jan. 6 and asking why the National Guard “wasn’t there to begin with,” but multiple fact‑...
The primary on-the-ground responsibility for security at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, rested with the United States Capitol Police (USCP), led at the time by Chief Steven Sund; oversight and p...
Authority to call up the National Guard on January 6, 2021, was legally and practically split among multiple actors: the District of Columbia Mayor could request DC National Guard assistance, the Capi...
On Jan. 6, 2021 the formal chain of authority to request National Guard support for the Capitol ran through the Capitol Police Board — composed of the House and Senate sergeants at arms and the Archit...
The Speaker of the House does not have legal authority to deploy the District of Columbia National Guard; , while specific requests to support the U.S. Capitol require approval by the Capitol Police B...
Available reporting and fact‑checks show there is no credible evidence that Nancy Pelosi personally refused National Guard assistance before Jan. 6, 2021; responsibility for calling the Guard rested w...
Claims that Speaker Nancy Pelosi “declined” or “refused” National Guard assistance before or during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack are widely disputed in reporting and fact‑checks: independent fact‑checkers ...
On January 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol Police and the Mayor of Washington, D.C., formally requested , including immediate National Guard assistance and additional federal law-enforcement support, but ap...
The Capitol Police Board—comprised of the House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, the Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger, and the Architect of the Capitol—decided on January 3, 2021, not to request a...
Congress changed the formal approval path after Jan. 6 so the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Chief can directly request the D.C. National Guard or federal law-enforcement assistance in an emergency withou...
Former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and former Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger gave testimony that differs from Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s account about when formal National Guar...
The Capitol Police Board’s pre‑January 6 governance, authorization processes, and long‑standing failures to implement GAO recommendations constrained the U.S. Capitol Police’s authority, slowed extern...
Multiple officials at different agencies both approved and denied requests for National Guard and other assistance around January 6, 2021: the D.C. National Guard activation was approved by Acting Def...
The Capitol Police Board — the three-member panel composed of the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol — opted not to pre-authorize a National Guard dep...
Nancy Pelosi did not have formal authority to order D.C. National Guard forces to the Capitol on January 6, 2021; the , and the Speaker does not direct Guard deployments . Contemporaneous timelines sh...