Ex-DOD Official: Democrats Losing the ‘Narrative’ on Jan. 6

Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

A former Trump advisor said that Democratic lawmakers and some court officials who claim that former President Donald Trump engaged in an insurrection during the Jan. 6 Capitol breach are losing the narrative.

Former Trump national security official Kash Patel Patel had testified to the committee, which dissolved with the current Congress, that President Trump verbally authorized the deployment of the National Guard troops. The final report from the Jan. 6 committee and its panel members have said otherwise, claiming that wasn’t the case and also cast doubt on Mr. Patel’s credibility.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller said that he was threatened by the panel to keep quiet after giving interviews with media outlets saying that the Guard troops were authorized by the former president.

This week, Mr. Patel told the Daily Mail that the move to try and prevent information about President Trump’s apparent move to authorize the troops is primarily about influencing public opinion.  “The whole point is it defeats their insurrection claim,” he said.

He then asked if President Trump “did not authorize the National Guard before Jan. 6, then how is it factually possible for Bowser and Pelosi to have rejected it, in writing. It’s impossible,” referring to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

A former Secret Service official, Tony Ornato, said in newly released testimony that Ms. Bowser, a Democrat, declined their offer for Guard troops and said she had enough help. Ms. Bowser had written to Trump Department of Defense officials a day before Jan. 6 denying their offer to send more National Guard troops.

“So, they lose the narrative in the public sphere. Now, they’re losing it in the courts with all the litigation,” Mr. Patel continued.

It came weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 9–0 ruling that Colorado and two other states could remove President Trump from ballots under a reading of the 14th Amendment’s Section 3, which bars an official from engaging in an “insurrection or rebellion.” The Colorado Supreme Court in December had ruled that the former president engaged in insurrection for his activity around Jan. 6 and blocked him from appearing on state ballots.

When asked about conversations he had with President Trump, Mr. Patel said the former president was thinking: “Just in case there’s any security issues in D.C. or any other major city, I know you need my authorization, so I’m giving it to you. Don’t come back to me. You have it [authorization]. Don’t waste time if a governor asks for troops—you have it.”

Mr. Patel added to the Daily Mail this week that the Trump administration “deployed the DOD [Department of Defense] leadership to Bowser and Pelosi and to Capitol Police that day” to send the Guard to the Capitol and throughout Washington. “They said no,” he said, adding that Democratic officials “wanted” pictures of Trump supporters appearing at the U.S. Capitol for political purposes.

His remarks come just days after Mr. Miller, the former Pentagon chief, recalled that Jan. 6 panel members used aggressive tactics and “latent threats” to try and silence him after he gave interviews to the media. At one point, he and Mr. Patel appeared on a Fox News segment in 2022 that appeared to “hit a nerve,” according to him.

“The two of us were on [the Fox News show] and the next day my lawyer got a call from the Jan. 6 staff director. … I forgot exactly who it was, but basically saying, very legalistic, ‘Well, if your client has additional information he wants to share, we’d be happy to have him re-interviewed,'” Mr. Miller said.

“It was more that latent threat of, ‘If you want to keep going on TV, we’re gonna drag you in here again for additional hours of hearing testimony.’ So that was the nature of that whole thing. It was the latent threat of the government continuing to intrude into my life.”

A file image of then National Security Council Senior Director of Counterterrorism Kashyap "Kash" Pramod Patel in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Oct. 27, 2019. Alex Wong/Getty Images

What Ornato Said

Earlier this month, House Republicans released a transcript they said the Jan. 6 House panel kept hidden from the public.

Mr. Ornato, who was the White House deputy chief of staff during the Capitol breach, told the committee that he overheard Mark Meadows, who was then chief of staff, on the phone with Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser. According to the transcript, Mr. Meadows wanted to ensure Ms. Bowser “had everything she needed.”

Mr. Meadows “wanted to know if she [needed] any more guardsmen,” Mr. Ornato testified, according to the transcript.

“And I remember the number 10,000 coming up of, ‘The president wants to make sure that you have enough,’” he said. “You know, ‘He is willing to ask for 10,000.’ I remember that number. Now that you said it, it reminded me of it.”

But the committee said in its final report that it “found no evidence” supporting the idea that President Trump ordered 10,000 National Guard troops to be ready for Jan. 6.

“The former J6 Select Committee apparently withheld Mr. Ornato’s critical witness testimony from the American people because it contradicted their pre-determined narrative,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who released the transcript, said in a statement this month.

After the report was released, Ms. Cheney wrote that people should read the committee’s report, which included the 2022 Miller interview in which he denied that President Trump ordered the troops.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.