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Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung efforts to call in National Guard
By Carol D. Leonnig, Aaron C. Davis, Peter Hermann and Karoun Demirjian
Two days before Congress was set to formalize Biden’s victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was growing increasingly worried about the size of the pro-Trump crowds expected to stream into Washington in protest.
To be on the safe side, Sund asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup.
But they turned him down, Sund said Sunday.
In his first interview since pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, Sund, who has since resigned his post, said his supervisors were reluctant to take formal steps to put the Guard on call even as police intelligence suggested that the crowd Trump had invited to Washington to protest his defeat probably would be much larger than earlier demonstrations.
