The outgoing chief of the U.S. Capitol Police said House of Representatives and Senate security officials had thwarted his efforts to call in the National Guard, contradicting assertions from other officials who said the force had not asked for help.
The former chief of the federal force, Steven Sund, told the Washington Post his supervisors were reluctant to take formal steps to put the Guard on call even as police intelligence suggested that the crowd President Donald Trump had invited to Washington to protest against his defeat was probably going to be much larger than earlier demonstrations.
Sund's remarks were in contrast with those from officials in other branches of government, who said after Trump's supporters stormed into the Capitol building last Wednesday that they could have provided more people to secure it but no one from the Capitol Police asked.