The transcripts of an interview conducted with Anthony Ornato, who served as the former White House Deputy Chief of Staff under President Donald Trump, have been made public. These transcripts reveal that the former president took decisive action by deploying 10,000 troops to Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, in order to ensure the security of the nation’s capital. Interestingly, despite being present during the interview, Liz Cheney, the former representative and Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, along with the committee itself, have not released this evidence to the public.
However, Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), the Chairman of the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight, has taken the initiative to release the transcript of his interview with Ornato after it was published by Mollie Hemmingway at The Federalist.
Loudermilk told Hemmingway, “The former J6 Select Committee apparently withheld Mr. Ornato’s critical witness testimony from the American people because it contradicted their pre-determined narrative.”
“Mr. Ornato’s testimony proves what Mr. Meadows has said all along, President Trump did offer 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the US Capitol, which was turned down. This is just one example of important information the former Select Committee hid from the public because it contradicted what they wanted the American people to believe. And this is exactly why my investigation is committed to uncovering all the facts, no matter the outcome,” Loudermilk added.
During the transcript, Soumya Dayananda, a senior investigative counsel, conducted an interview with Ornato as a part of the investigation.
Dayananda asked Ornato: “When it comes to the National Guard statement about having 10,000 troops or any other number of troops, do you recall any discussion prior to the 6th about whether and how many National Guard troops to deploy on January 6th?”
Ornato verified his recollection of a phone discussion with ex-Trump White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, and DC Mayor, Muriel Bowser, during which it was stated that Trump was keen to guarantee and was “prepared to ask for 10,000” National Guard troops.
Ornato explained further that Bowser had only “350 or so for intersection control” and that these were not for “law enforcement capacity at the time.”
“That’s the only thing I recall with that number 10,000 National Guard guardsmen,” Ornato added. “And then I remember the chief telling [Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher] Miller, ‘Get them in here, get them in here to secure the Capitol now.’”
Former Representative Liz Cheney and the J6 Committee have stated that there is no evidence to support the claim that Trump called for 10,000 National Guard troops to control any unrest. Earlier this year, House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) strongly criticized the Nancy Pelosi-picked Select Committee on January 6 for allegedly deleting or password-protecting approximately 2 terabytes of data just days before Republicans assumed control of the House a year ago.
According to the New York Post, the House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, which is responsible for investigating both the 2021 Capitol riot and the previous Democrat-led inquiry into the riot, discovered that over 100 files were encrypted and deleted from hard drives during the transition of power to GOP control in January 2023.
It was expected that the select committee would provide Republican Chairman Barry Loudermilk of Georgia with four terabytes of archived data. However, the committee only provided two terabytes of data, as reported by the outlet. In a recent post, Stefanik criticized the committee, which included former Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), for their actions.
“As I said from day one, Nancy Pelosi’s sham January 6th Committee was illegitimate and unconstitutional. It should come as a surprise to no one that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney’s fake committee illegally deleted records of their sham investigation and obstructed justice,” Stefanik wrote in a post to X Tuesday. “The American people deserve full transparency.”
