Source: Politics<\/p>\n
The U.S. Capitol Police identified about 200 members of the Proud Boys assembling on the morning of Jan. 6, but officials sent the department\u2019s intelligence resources elsewhere, a key lawmaker said on Monday.<\/p>\n
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chair of the House Administration Committee, said at a hearing that the department\u2019s timeline made no further reference about the Proud Boys, many of whom breached the Capitol later that day. Less than half an hour later, the timeline said, the department opted to monitor three to four counterdemonstrators who had been \u201csetting up props,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She asked Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton whether countersurveillance had been assigned to the Proud Boys she referenced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did the department decide to monitor the \u2026 counterdemonstrators but apparently, according to this timeline, not to monitor the Proud Boys?\u201d Lofgren asked Bolton. \u201cWhat happened to these 200 Proud Boys over the course of the day?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bolton said he didn\u2019t have the answer to Lofgren\u2019s questions, but said he hoped to have answers after his next report.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the same kind of concerns,\u201d Bolton said. <\/p>\n
He also questioned the timeline\u2019s accuracy and said these questions were part of why he moved up a report on command and control and radio traffic to June from later this summer.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Capitol Police told POLITICO that the department did have \u201ccountersurveillance teams \u2026 reporting on the Proud Boys\u201d and that its intelligence operations team did get information about the hundreds of Proud Boys from the Metropolitan Police Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cUSCP pushed that information out to the intelligence distribution,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThe department was on the lookout for any and all potential threats on January 6.\u201d <\/p>\n
Evidence filed by the Justice Department suggests coordination<\/a> between groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia network, ahead of then-President Donald Trump\u2019s Jan. 6 rally. In a debate in September, when asked to condemn white supremacists, Trump called on the Proud Boys<\/a>, a self-described \u201cWestern chauvinist\u201d group, to \u201cstand back\u201d and \u201cstand by.\u201d<\/p>\n The department\u2019s highest-ranking on-the-ground commander, Eric Waldow, urged officers to look out for anti-Trump demonstrators among the sprawling pro-Trump crowd, POLITICO previously reported.<\/a> Lawmakers have expressed fears that the department didn\u2019t take seriously enough the threat that pro-Trump extremists posed to Congress.<\/p>\n