Back on Dec. 26, Secret Service officials shared a whistleblower warning that extremist groups were coming to the Capitol with murderous plans. “They think they’re going to have enough armed groups marching into Washington, D.C., and outnumbering the police, that they can’t be stopped,” the tip reads.
“Their plan is to actually kill,” the tipster wrote. “Please, please take this tip seriously and investigate further.”
Evidence presented at the hearing put the Secret Service on a long list of national security agencies that had received prescient warnings about plans to attack protesters on Jan. 1. 6, but failed to respond to the uprising with urgency or cohesion.
Jan. 6 Committee member Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said new details — internal emails retrieved from more than a million records the Secret Service provided to House panels — sparked concerns about the agency How its intelligence was shared and whether officials were outspoken about what they knew about the warnings.
“As we’ve seen, the Secret Service and other agencies knew about the prospect of violence long before the president’s speech at the Oval,” Schiff said at the hearing. “Nevertheless, certain White House and Secret Service witnesses have testified previously. Said they had not received any intelligence about the violence that might have threatened any of their disciples on January 6, including the vice president. The evidence strongly suggests that this testimony is not credible. “
In a statement, Deputy Secret Service Director Faron K. Paramore noted that the agency is not “a member of the intelligence community” and said it has shared its information extensively with others.
“In the weeks leading up to January. June 6th, the Secret Service has been communicating and sharing information with our law enforcement partners in Washington, D.C., regarding available protection intelligence and open source information about potential violence,” Paramo Er said.
The specifics of much of the intelligence cited in Thursday’s hearing were alarming. Schiff said a Secret Service unit flagged a social media account on a pro-Trump website that threatened to bring sniper rifles to Washington.
“Before the speech, before going to the Capitol, the Secret Service and others in the White House had direct access to intelligence about this risk,” Schiff said.
in a december. In a Jan. 30 email, a Secret Service agent warned of online threats from Trump supporters, noting that the US Marshals Service “has seen a lot of violent speech against government personnel, entities, and our protected individuals.” The most vulnerable protected person to attack: the vice president.
Schiff noted that on the morning of the rally, the Secret Service knew that many of the protesters in the crowd on the Oval were armed, but it was unclear what the agency was doing as a result. It is a crime to carry a firearm on federal property. Trump is scheduled to speak after noon.
The Secret Service shared police reports that morning that they saw the rally crowd carrying firearms, including Glocks, pistols and rifles. According to reports, they knew that Washington police had detained a man with an assault rifle.
At the same time, they received reports of death threats against Pence, who had just entered the U.S. Capitol that morning to carry out his duties in proving the election.
“Alarm at 1022, if VP doesn’t do the right thing, he’ll walk like a dead man,” a Secret Service email warned at 10:39 a.m.
At 12:36, as Trump took office, one Secret Service employee emailed another, telling them there were few hidden threats around.
“With so many weapons discovered so far, you wonder how many are unknown,” a Secret Service employee wrote to a colleague. “It can be sporty after dark,” he wrote, referring to the chance of a shootout.
“No doubt,” his colleague wrote back. “The Ellipse guys said they moved to the Capitol after the POTUS speech.”