Two then-acting heads of Cabinet departments during the Trump administration will attempt to defend the actions they took to protect the Capitol and members of Congress during the January 6th insurrectionist attack in a Congressional hearing scheduled for Wednesday, according to advanced copies of statements obtained by Politico.
Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen have been widely criticised for failing to provide sufficient security and support to the Capitol Police and DC Metropolitan Police who were besieged by a mob of Trump supporters. Media reports and testimony from other officials outline a delay of many hours in reinforcements arriving at the Capitol, and lawmakers question preparedness of security based on intelligence collected by federal law enforcement.
In the statements obtained by Politico, Miller says he stands by “EVERY decision I made that day and the ones I made in the days following January 6. Our Nation’s Armed Forces are to be deployed for domestic law enforcement only when all civilian assets are expended and ONLY as the absolute last resort.”
Miller goes on to say that troop movements are “a video game” in which forces can be moved in an instant and that the efforts to bring reinforcements from the National Guard onto the scene weren’t impeded in any way, calling the effort an “enormous accomplishment” and that they worked “effectively and quickly.”
Rosen, on the other hand, intends to testify that he followed the letter of the law, both in having federal law enforcement available to defend the Capitol and in how the Department of Justice handled the multitude of false claims relating to election integrity.
“During my tenure, no special prosecutors were appointed, whether for election fraud or otherwise; no public statements were made questioning the election; no letters were sent to State officials seeking to overturn the election results; no DOJ court actions or filings were submitted seeking to overturn election results, and the only time DOJ did file a brief it was to seek a dismissal of [Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert]’s lawsuit aiming to decertify the electoral count — and that lawsuit was dismissed, as DOJ had urged,” he says.