Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said Monday that the since-disbanded Select Committee on Jan. 6 interviewed him only once during Democrats’ two-year investigation.
Speaking on the D.C. radio station WMAL, Sund said J6 investigators’ interest was limited to a single six-hour Zoom interview, “and it was clear they wanted to get as far away as possible from any institutional failures that occurred that day or anything that put any kind of fingerprints on congressional leadership.”
The ex-police chief also told the radio station that he desperately pleaded for policymakers to deploy the National Guard on the day of the riot. The House sergeant at arms took 71 minutes to approve the dispatching of additional Guard troops while the Capitol was attacked, Sund said.
Sund encountered resistance from the Pentagon next, where officials cited concerns about “optics” if National Guard troops were sent to the Capitol. House leadership also complained about the “optics” of Guard reinforcements pre-emptively stationed in the run-up to Jan. 6, Sund added.
“Even when we’re in the middle of battle, I’m being told, ‘No, they’re concerned about optics,’” Sund said. “But they’re sending resources to the generals’ homes to protect their homes.”
Sund’s radio appearance corroborates Federalist reporting on Friday that then-President Donald Trump called for 10,000 National Guard troops to offer additional security at the Capitol in the run-up to Jan. 6. The Trump White House, however, was frustrated by then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller’s slow deployment of the troops.
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