DC Police Chief Says He Had No Contact With Pelosi’s Office Before Jan. 6

Police Chief Robert Contee speaks to reporters, with Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, after a shooting in the District of Columbia, on July 22, 2021. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Robert Contee, the chief of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), said on May 16 that he had no contact with the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.

During a hearing by the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) asked D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser whether she or her office had contact with the speaker’s office, the sergeant-at-arms, or any federal law enforcement agency about intelligence of a likelihood of violence on Jan. 6. Gosar did not specify which sergeant-at-arms, as there is one each on the House and Senate side.

Bowser deferred to Contee, given that MPD works with federal law enforcement on First Amendment-related activities in the nation’s capital.

Contee said there were “several conversations with law enforcement officials,” including the Capitol Police and both the House and Senate sergeant-at-arms prior to Jan. 6.

When asked by Gosar if he had any talks with the speaker’s office ahead of Jan. 6, Contee said, “I had no personal conversation with the speaker’s office. I ... believe that the architect of the Capitol was also involved in those conversations. But I don’t recall specifically the speaker’s office being part of that conversation.”

The architect of the Capitol is in charge of maintaining and developing the Capitol grounds.

The Metropolitan Police Department was sent to the Capitol on Jan. 6, followed hours later by the National Guard.

The report by the now-defunct House Jan. 6 Committee noted that law enforcement had “substantial evidence” of possible violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but the report did not blame law enforcement over its actions ahead of that day.

Contee, who will depart MPD on June 3 to be the FBI assistant director, and D.C. City Administrator Kevin Donahue joined Bowser, a Democrat, to help her answer questions. Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, testified alongside Bowser.

During the hearing, Bowser lamented the state of crime in the nation’s capital. She said that the status quo in crime in the District of Columbia is unacceptable.

“No one can be satisfied with increasing crime trends in any category,” she said. “I certainly am not.”

In Washington, according to the Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime is up 13 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year. There has been an 11 percent increase in homicides, a 45 percent rise in sex abuses, a 2 percent increase in assaults with a dangerous weapon, and a 19 percent jump in robberies.

According to MPD, burglaries have decreased 10 percent in Washington this year compared to 2022, but there has been a 30 percent overall increase in property crimes. Motor vehicle thefts have gone up a staggering 114 percent. There has been a 6 percent rise in thefts from automobiles, a 24 percent jump in other thefts, and a 300 percent increase in arsons.

Democrats decried the hearing with criticisms that included interfering in local Washington affairs, even though Congress has the authority to do so, and the nation’s capital not having certain benefits, including voting representation.