'Smoking gun' memo adds to year-long 'conspiracy' in Trump Defense Department: analyst

The letter that some are calling a "smoking gun" revealed this week that the Defense Department under President Donald Trump intentionally left Washington, D.C. undefended during the Jan. 6 attacks and the rest of the country in danger in the year before.

As intelligence analyst Eric Garland pointed out in an extensive thread, days before the U.S. Capitol came under attack. Because Washington, D.C. isn't a state, they don't have permission to control their own National Guard troops. It's why in the days leading up to Jan. 6 Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a request to the Defense Department asking for National Guard troops to assist law enforcement during the rally.

"According to a U.S. defense official, Bowser put in a request on New Year's Eve to have Guard members on the streets from Tuesday to Thursday to help with the protests," the Associated Press reported Jan. 4. "The official said the additional forces will be used for traffic control and other assistance but they will not be armed or wearing body armor. Congress is meeting this week to certify the Electoral College results, and Trump has refused to concede while whipping up support for protests."

During his testimony before Congress, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund revealed that there were calls for National Guard help that were denied six times during the riots. Ultimately, it was former Vice President Mike Pence who was able to get the Guard on the ground while he was being rushed to a secure location. At the same time, outside, Trump's supporters were chanting, "hang Mike Pence."

It was already revealed that the DC National Guard was prevented from preparing for the attack, the memo says. However, they weren't just forbidden from acting ahead of the attack, "they were blinded," said Garland. They weren't allowed to use any intelligence, surveillance or reconnaissance to help aid in the defense of Washington. Such rules fly in the face of the mission of the D.C. Guard.

Last week the Department of Homeland Security sent out a bulletin saying that there was a possibility of another future attack from far-right, anti-government terrorists. Commentators this week asked why such an alert was being sent out now instead of two years before. Former DHS official Miles Taylor confirmed it was because Trump wanted these reports suppressed.

Garland also cited whistleblower Bryan Murphy, who revealed in mid-2020 that he ordered the DHS to suppress reports on Russian interference in the election and instead focus on China and Iran. He also tried to downplay the threats from right-wing terrorists and instead focusedf on Antifa.

"In March 2020, Mr. Murphy's team at DHS I&A completed a Homeland Threat Assessment ("HTA")," the House Intelligence Committee documents revealed. "Competition of the HTA was a requirement set forth by Acting Secretary Kevin McCleenan prior to his departure from DHS. Mr. Murphy was intimately involved in the editing and crafting of the HTA. Following its completion, the HTA was distributed by [I&A Under Secretary David] Glawe [under secretary Chad] Wolf, [Acting Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken] Cuccinelli, and DHS Chief of Staff John Gountanis. Shortly after the distribution, Mr. Glawe was informed that further distribution of the HTA was prohibited due to concerns raised by Wolf and Cuccinelli regarding how the HTA would reflect upon President Trump."

The two sections that were the most concerning and the men said should be suppressed were about white supremacy and Russian influence in the U.S., the investigation showed.

Murphy tried to talk to Congress about the scandal ahead of the election but Trump's DHS worked to stop it. He didn't appear before Congress until December.

Trump allies have continued to try and claim that the attacks on Jan. 6 were Antifa related, despite arrests all being Trump supporters.

"Just from open source information, it appears that there was a year-long conspiracy to hide the threat of violent right-wing paramilitaries while hyping a fake threat from the Left because Trump knew he could never win the election, so a coup d'état was the only answer," Garland closed his thread.

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