A previously undisclosed Pentagon document obtained by the Associated Press reveals dramatic new details about the delayed response to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. The internal report shows how officials struggled to re-establish order as supporters of Donald Trump stormed the building, and how help took hours to arrive.
Two hours after the Capitol was breached, Vice-President Mike Pence placed an urgent phone call to acting defence secretary Christopher Miller, demanding action. Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi made desperate appeals for the army to deploy the National Guard. General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told Pentagon leaders: “We must establish order.”
The document provides a minute-by-minute timeline. At 1.49pm, Capitol police chief Steven Sund requested assistance from the DC National Guard. By 2.10pm, rioters had broken into the Senate. Despite pleas, no help arrived for nearly two hours. At 4.08pm, Pence again called Miller, asking for a deadline to secure the building. President Trump did not engage until 4.17pm, when he tweeted for his followers to “go home and go in peace”. The military plan was finalised around 4.30pm, but order was not restored for several more hours.
The report highlights intelligence failures, tactical errors and bureaucratic delays. It shows that the government failed to comprehend the scale of the uprising by its own citizens. Five people died as a direct result of the riot, and more than 400 have been charged. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is investigating the siege, said: “Any minute that we lost, I need to know why.”
