Attack on U.S. Capitol: Law enforcement officials to break silence on security failures

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Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the Rules of the Senate hold a public hearing in which they will likely toast former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, former Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger and Acting American Metropolitan. Police chief Robert Contee explains how such a catastrophic failure happened and how to prevent it in the future.

Contee has already spoken to lawmakers in a closed-door hearing, but the testimony of Irving, Stenger and Sund could be monumental. All three were instrumental in the decision to prepare for the January 6 rally, and yet Americans heard virtually nothing from any of them.

Sund spoke sporadically. His strongest statement to date came in a letter he sent to the leadership of Congress detailing the decision-making process leading up to January 6 and his response once the rally turned violent.

Neither Irving nor Stenger have spoken publicly about the insurgency.

In his letter, Sund placed significant blame on some of those he will testify with on Tuesday.

“The whole intelligence community seems to have missed this,” he wrote.

According to Sund’s letter, he asked Irving and Stenger, who, along with the architect of the Capitol building, form the council that oversees the police department, to ask the National Guard before the event.

Irving said he “was concerned about ‘the optics’ and didn’t think the intelligence was supporting it,” Sund wrote. Senate Sergeant Stenger suggested asking the Guard to be ready in case Sund needed them.

A Congressional source says Contee, Irving and Stenger will likely all appear virtually. Sund is expected to testify in person.

USCP interim chief Yogananda Pittman is scheduled to testify in a public hearing before the House appropriations committee on Thursday. It will also mark the first time Pittman has publicly answered questions. She has already appeared in a closed-door hearing in which she apologized to lawmakers.
FBI, intel agencies turn over first documents to lawmakers ahead of Capitol Attack hearings next week

His new testimony comes as officials begin the search for a new head of the USCP.

A Congressional source told CNN that Congress is moving forward with hiring an outside entity to begin the research.

Several other committees working together have already received briefings and documents from intelligence agencies in connection with the numerous investigations.

The joint review of the House Intelligence, Homeland Security, Oversight and Justice committees last week prompted the production of FBI, DHS and NCTC documents, a source in Congress told CNN . In addition, they received several information sessions from the three agencies.

The source has so far said that the documents were mostly finished intelligence products that the committee could already access.

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