Not just the Secret Service, now the Department of Defense appears to have wiped phone and text records of those responsible for deploying the National Guard on January 6th. Why the Guard was not deployed is a major question we've been asking here since before January 6th, and certainly since then -- it was obvious that there was a significant potential for disorder given the nearby mass rally to protest the very thing going on inside Congress right then. Finding out why the Capitol was left unprotected is going to be harder given this apparently intentional destruction of the relevant public records.
It's not hard to come to a pretty firm conclusion *why* the Capitol was not prepared for at least the usual unruliness that attends a large gathering of politically motivated people, given knowledge of the usual procedure for releasing National Guard troops for such duty. The more interesting question is was assistance offered, requested, or declined, and by whom?
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Glenn Reynold's tag on a link to this story, if these devices (and the ones from the Secret Service) were wiped to protect Donald Trump it would appear to be the first time the ball has bounced that direction.
Yeah, it was clearly to protect themselves. There is an open question as to whether it was also to protect a broader decision within the government to allow/encourage a riot that could be used for political purposes. That sort of conspiracy thinking is to be discouraged as much as possible; but we must notice as a matter of fact that the riot is now being so used by the J6 Committee, the J6 cases being prosecuted by the DOJ, and the Congressional and media pressure on the DOJ to prosecute Trump formally. Whether or not they conspired about it in advance, they're certainly all of one mind about how to handle it now.
ReplyDeleteThese public records' being destroyed is, I suppose, another area where there will be zero accountability for the leadership of the DOD. If they can whitewash Afghanistan, what's a few text messages?