Key takeaways from the Senate report on January 6 Capitol riots

A revealing report was submitted on Tuesday by two Senate-commissioned committees on the security failures leading up to the US Capitol insurrection on January 6, which rocked the country. 

The report entails new details about prior warnings, miscommunications and shortcomings of the provided intelligence report.

To formulate the report, congressional investigators went through “thousands of documents,” received written statements from 50 police officers who defended the Capitol and received testimony from a wide array of current and former officials who played a role in the security preparations and response.

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Here are the key takeaways from the report released on a bipartisan basis by the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee:

Prior warnings were issued to the Capitol Police

First and foremost, the report confirmed that the US Capitol Police’s main intelligence unit “was aware of the potential for violence in the days and weeks ahead of January 6.”

However, the statement clarified that not everyone was aware. The inquiry determined that USCP’s “decentralized” intelligence operation meant some people saw these warnings while other officials were left in the dark.

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, told Capitol Police that hotel bookings roughly doubled in comparison to pro-Trump rallies in November and December, the Senate report said, according to CNN report.  

According to reports, a private citizen emailed USCP’s general mailbox on December 28 saying there were “tweets from people organizing to ‘storm the Capitol’ on January 6th.”

Communication gap between Capitol Police and Hill security officials

Given the US Capitol Police Chief has no authority to request assistance from the National Guard, the report said that this explained a lot about the failures on the day of the insurrection.

Then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund wanted to call in the troops for backup, he needed to coordinate with other Hill security officials to secure assistance from the National Guard.

Although the officials tried to deal with the request, they were unfamiliar with the laws and regulations that needed to be followed, the inquiry found, CNN reported.  

The red tape “hindered” the much-needed National Guard response and that’s why one of the first recommendations from the Senate report is to empower the Capitol Police chief to have unilateral authority to request military support in emergency situations.

This is far from the full story

Although the 95-page report is quite comprehensive, it is only a piece of the bigger puzzle. In order to find bipartisan support, investigators intentionally avoided the most politicized topics — like Trump’s culpability, according to CNN inputs. 

There was no mention of efforts by extremist groups to plan for violence in DC neither of former President Donald Trump and the Republican officials fanning the flames. 

Sources told CNN that to keep Republicans in the fold, the report avoided using the word “insurrection” to describe the attack.