A Passed Note
At the House Republican press conference on July 27, McCarthy and Rep. Rodney Davis raised the issue of a note from Irving that was passed to Pelosi on the House floor on the afternoon of Jan. 6, asking permission to bring in the National Guard. Davis argued it was evidence Pelosi was “calling the shots on all of their actions on Jan. 6.”
“Why was the speaker’s permission even needed?” Davis asked.
Hammill confirmed that Irving sought out Pelosi for permission to seek support from the National Guard.
“At approximately 1:40 p.m., SAA Irving approached Chief of Staff Terri McCullough and other Speaker’s staff in the Speaker’s Lobby behind the House Chamber,” Hammill told us in an email. “He asked about permission to seek support from the National Guard. Ms. McCullough immediately entered the Chamber and passed a note to the Speaker who [was] presiding in the House Chamber at approximately 1:43 p.m. Ms. McCullough was on the rostrum briefly to present this request.
“The Speaker approved the request and asked if McConnell’s approval was also needed. Ms. McCullough said yes. The Speaker instructed Ms. McCullough to seek McConnell approval. Ms. McCullough left the Chamber to call Senator McConnell’s Chief of Staff and was not successful in reaching her. Ms. McCullough then spoke to SAA Irving by phone to relay the Speaker’s decision. SAA Irving explained that he and the Senate SAA were already meeting with Senator McConnell staff. Ms. McCullough then joined that meeting in the Senate SAA’s office where she reiterated the Speaker’s approval for seeking immediate National Guard support.”
McCarthy said he found it telling that Irving felt the need to get Pelosi’s approval.
“Why would a sergeant of arms, when you have an insurrection going on or protests out here, you’ve got a line being broken and you’re the sergeant of arms, why would your first response be ‘I gotta send a note to the speaker to see if it’s okay if I could do my job to protect the men and women on the line’?” McCarthy asked. “Why would that be your first reaction? Why?”
We asked Hammill whether permission from Pelosi was necessary.
“As we have said many times, the Speaker expects security professionals to make security decisions and to be briefed about those decisions,” Hammill said.
In any case, minutes after getting the OK from Pelosi and McConnell, Sund was on the phone at 1:49 p.m. with the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard requesting the immediate assistance of the guard. However, it took three more hours for the first National Guard members to arrive to assist at the Capitol, as the request needed the approval of Department of Defense leaders, and the force needed time to assemble and prepare.
Withheld Documents
Jordan and other Republicans speculated — despite Pelosi’s spokesman denying it — that Pelosi may have had discussions with Irving prior to Jan. 6 discouraging the deployment of the National Guard on Capitol property, and that emails or other communication records held by the House sergeant at arms might prove that.
Banks claimed Pelosi withheld documents from the Senate committee that looked into the security response to the Jan. 6 attack. Banks then speculated that it was because Pelosi “was involved and the lack of leadership and the breakdown of security that occurred in January 6th.”
Banks, July 25: The Homeland Security and the Rules Committee jointly published a report that came out in June, and it talked about the systemic failure of leadership and the — and the — and a breakdown of security on January. We — we know that a number of documents from the speaker’s office were submitted for that report, but there are also a number of documents that they refused to release, that the speaker’s office refused to release for that investigation that still — still sit on the computers in the speaker’s — speaker’s office that we should be demanding to take a look at as well. And the reason I can only speculate as to why they don’t want those documents to be released, because it — it — it — at the end of the day, it — it shows that — that the speaker was involved and the lack of leadership and the breakdown of security that occurred in Jan. 6.
Pelosi’s spokesman, Hammill, said: “Congressman Banks is making that up. There were no documents requested from the Office of the Speaker by the Senate investigation.”
Indeed, records from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs show that Pelosi’s office was not among the 22 agencies the committee requested information from.
The Senate report on the Jan. 6 attack noted, however, that the office of House sergeant at arms “did not comply with the Committees’ information requests.”
Mitchell Hailstone, a spokesman for Banks, clarified that that’s what Banks was referring to.
“There are documents on staff computers in offices controlled by the Speaker of the House, including documents belonging to the then-Sergeant at Arms that were requested by the Committee on House Administration after the attack on the 6th, that have not been turned over,” Hailstone told us via email. “These are documents on staff computers that the speaker’s office has the ability to turn over or not. They have not been made public.”
A spokesman for Democrats on the Senate committee, however, said the office of the House sergeant at arms responded to the Senate committee that because it is a House entity, the Senate did not have jurisdiction over the office. The aide said there was no indication that this position was taken at Pelosi’s direction.
At the Republican press conference on July 27, Davis said that at Pelosi’s direction, the House sergeant at arms also denied a “House administration official request to preserve documents and communications.”
“We don’t have the details … or conversations leading up to the 6th because, under the speaker’s direction, the sergeant at arms has denied our House administration official request to preserve documents and communications,” Davis said. “What are they hiding? What is the speaker hiding?”
But the Democrats on the House Administration Committee provided us a letter, dated Feb. 1, from the chief administrative officer of the House and Timothy Blodgett, the acting House sergeant at arms, to Davis denying his request for data but assuring that they were “taking appropriate steps within our authority, as requested by data owners, or as requested by law enforcement to preserve information and data related to the attack on the Capitol.”
The Democrats also provided us with an email sent Jan. 12 by Blodgett to all House sergeant at arms staff directing them to preserve all records related to Jan. 6.
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