By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s looking more and more like the American people will never be told the whole truth about Trump’s insurrection and attempted coup d’état on January 6, 2021.

The political news site Politico broke a story Friday afternoon based on an anonymous, “scathing” whistleblower letter to high ranking members of Congress from an alleged “high-ranking Capitol Police official with knowledge of the department’s response to the Jan. 6 attack,” accusing two of its senior leaders with mishandling advance intelligence and failing to respond properly during the insurrection.

“The whistleblower, who requested anonymity for privacy reasons and left the force months after the attack, sent the 16-page letter late last month to the top members of both parties in the House and Senate. His missive makes scorching allegations against Sean Gallagher, the Capitol Police’s acting chief of uniformed operations, and Yogananda Pittman, its assistant chief of police for protective and intelligence operations who also served as its former acting chief,” Politico reports.

Read the full letter here, with the name of the sender redacted.

Steven A. Sund immediately resigned as Capitol Police chief at the direct behest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately after the success of the violent breach of the Capitol. Paul D. Irving, the House sergeant-at arms, also resigned, as well as Michael C. Stenger, the Senate sergeant-at-arms. Sources say they should all be investigated for their roles in the “stand down” posture of many in uniform in Washington on that day, including the commander-in-chief’s acting secretary of defense Christopher C. Miller along with a number of Capitol Police officers themselves, who appeared to help the insurrectionists and domestic terrorists and traitors move past barriers and enter doors on the East side of the building.

Related: Capitol Police Officers Face Investigation for Role in Capitol Insurrection

So far Congress has only sought their testimony seeking advice on what went wrong and how to fix it. They are apparently not being investigated for their role in nearly stopping the formal Electoral College recount of votes showing Joe Biden the winner in the Presidential election of 2020, and almost making the government takeover a success. Also so far, no investigative body has undertaken to investigate Republican members of Congress who were involved in planning the government takeover and helping insurrections try to carry out the planned coup d’état.

The whistleblower accuses Gallagher and Pittman of deliberately choosing not to help officers under attack on Jan. 6, and former acting chief Pittman of lying to Congress about an FBI intelligence report that was only shared with a small number of leaders in police agencies, not operational field commanders who could have used the information to better prepare in advance and fight the attack on the Capitol when it happened.

The whistleblower also accused Congress of not being fully forthcoming with the American people in a letter Politico reporters say has been “circulating among Capitol Police officers.”

“This document is filed as a whistle-blower and focuses on two primary topics,” the letter begins. “One is the failures of Chiefs Pittman and Gallagher of the USCP leading up to, on and after January 6th. The second is the topic of the failed honesty of the congressional community with the members of the USCP. As this document focuses on the leadership of the Congress it mostly speaks of command USCP officials. It’s not meant to minimize the heroic efforts of so many incredible officers, supervisors and civilians throughout the Department…”

“The congressional community speaks of honoring the brave men and women of the USCP with a gold medal, awards and monetary benefits,” the letter continues. “As honor and honesty are derived from the same Latin root, Honeste, I submit that you can’t honor without honesty….”

“The truth may be valued less than politics by many members of the congressional community to include those that have made decisions about the leadership of the USCP post-January 6, but I believe the truth still matters to real people and certainly the men and women of the U.S. Capitol Police,” the whistleblower wrote.

The official, who Politico confirmed was in the Capitol Police Command Center for at least some of the time during the insurrection, said Gallagher, Pittman and other commanders just sat there and watched the breach of the building on TV monitors, “mostly with their hands in their laps.” They “did not try to help or assist as officers and officials were literally fighting for each other, their lives and the Congress.”

“What I observed was them mostly sitting there, blankly looking at the TV screens showing real time footage of officers and officials fighting for the Congress and their lives,” the whistleblower wrote.

“It is my allegation that these two with intent and malice opted to not try and assist the officers and officials, blame others for the failures, and chose to try and use this event for their own personal promotions,” he added. “This was done not after the even[t] but while officers and officials were still fighting the demonstrators.”

Two law enforcement officials who confirmed the presence of the whistleblower in the command center offered a different assessment of their role, saying Gallagher focused on bringing in support from the National Guard and law enforcement partners such as the D.C. Metro Police, the FBI and Secret Service, and that Pittman focused on the evacuation and protection of members of Congress and the vice president.

The whistleblower wrote, however, that officials and officers have resigned from the department en masse because Pittman and Gallagher haven’t been held accountable for what happened that day.

“This concerted effort to protect the two members of the Department without question the most responsible for the tragic events of January 6th is repulsive,” the whistleblower wrote.

When asked for a chance to respond to the charges, a spokesperson for the Capitol Police sent out a statement that was not published on its public website downplaying the charges in the letter, by claiming “A lot has changed since January 6. Although there is more work to do, many of the problems described in the letter have been addressed.”

A spokesperson added that the department “has implemented, and continues to implement, many of the critical recommendations called for in” a Senate inquiry into Jan. 6, a separate review conducted by retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, and multiple probes by its own inspector general.

The letter was addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, with copies to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Democratic Senator Any Klobuchar of Minnesota, California Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, Illinois Republican Congressman Rodney Davis, Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Republican Senator Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

So far no comments have been forthcoming from any of these sources, and the Politico story as of Sunday afternoon was being ignored by The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major U.S. news outlets, which so far have framed the entire affair as simply a “riot” by far-right extremist groups such as the Proud Boys, and a heroic effort by Capitol Police officers to fight them off. Nevermind that the Capitol Police clearly lost the battle, and were rescued by the D.C. Metro Police especially on the West and South sides of the Capitol.

The whistleblower accused Pittman of lying to Congress about a key intelligence report the department received in late December. That report noted that a blog called “thedonald.win” posted a map of the Capitol campus, and that commenters on the site called for protesters to carry guns and confront members of Congress on Jan. 6.

Pittman told congressional investigators in April that a cohort of senior officials in the department were also aware of that intelligence before the attack. The whistleblower claimed in his letter, however, that other officials did not receive the intelligence report, and that Pittman lied when she said they did.

“These officials were the only officials that had all the intelligence information for the 6th,” the whistleblower wrote, regarding Gallagher and Pittman.

“The single most important piece of intelligence information … was never shared with any members of USCP leadership,” the whistleblower added, asking: “Why did they approve the operational plan for the 6th if they knew the intelligence?”

However, the report in question wasn’t the only key piece of intelligence that didn’t reach the right people in the department, according to the whistleblower. Gallagher and Pittman also had information showing groups that received permits to hold events surrounding the Capitol on Jan. 6 were all front operations for “Stop the Steal,” the whistleblower wrote.

“Stop the Steal was a movement promoting the conspiracy theory that nefarious forces stole the election from Trump,” Politico explains. “The movement’s organizers promoted a rally on the National Mall that preceded the attack on the Capitol.”

That was “game changing information,” the whistleblower added, but operational commanders — the officers in the field supervising police activity — never learned about it.

In the whistleblower’s view, Gallagher and Pittman had all the intelligence needed to justify demanding reinforcements from the National Guard, closing the doors to the Capitol and using tougher but less-than-lethal weapons on the morning of Jan. 6. But they didn’t share that intelligence with the right people, the whistleblower wrote, and instead approved a woefully inadequate security plan.

And the whistleblower lambasted congressional leadership for letting Gallagher and Pittman maintain their senior roles in the police department even as a new chief took over.

“[I]t is immensely embarrassing to the congressional leadership and staff that they selected the two individuals most responsible for the 6th to lead the Department after the 6th,” he wrote in his conclusion. “Especially since some entity selected them without any investigation. To hold them accountable would require this same group to admit they were wrong.”

It’s been reported previously that some operational commanders in the Capitol Police did not receive the FBI intelligence briefing in advance.

According to other sources, Pittman still serves as assistant chief of the Capitol Police after serving as acting chief from January 8 to July 23, following the 2021 storming of the Capitol and resignation of Sund. Her term as acting chief ended at the time of the appointment of J. Thomas Manger.

She joined the Capitol Police in 2001. In 2012, Pittman was among the first black female supervisors to be promoted to the rank of captain. At that time, she was responsible for over 400 officers and civilian staff. The next year, she was in charge of the security planning for the second inauguration of Barack Obama. During her tenure, Pittman has been assigned to the United States Senate Division and most recently served as assistant chief of police for protective and intelligence operations. In 2020, Pittman received the Women in Federal Law Enforcement’s Outstanding Advocate for Women award.

She is the first woman and first African American to lead the Capitol Police. But on Feb. 15, 2021, the U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee, the union representing Capitol Police officers, voted 92 percent against Pittman in a vote of no confidence in her leadership.

Video: Capitol police relive horror at first Jan. 6 hearing, in 180 seconds

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