A whistleblower who served as the chief legal advisor for the D.C. National Guard on January 6, 2021 has alleged that senior military leadership plotted to disobey orders from then-President Donald Trump during the Capitol riot.
Colonel Earl Matthews, who was the Staff Judge Advocate for the D.C. National Guard that day, came forward with his claims to the House subcommittee reviewing the January 6 Select Committee’s investigation. In an interview with DailyMail, Matthews stated:
“I think a very plausible argument can be made that through no fault of his own, President Trump’s command authority over both the D.C. National Guard and the U.S. Army itself had been surreptitiously curtailed by the senior leadership of the Army on January 6, 2021. Army leadership had unreasonably anticipated an ‘unlawful order’ from the President, an order that the President had no plans to issue, and were preemptively seeking to curtail his discretion to issue such an order.”
Matthews was on a critical phone call that afternoon with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and others. During the call, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund pleaded for the D.C. National Guard to assist law enforcement in responding to the Capitol riot.
According to Matthews and Sund’s testimony to Congress, Army Staff Director Walter Piatt and Chief of Staff for Operations Charles Flynn were also on the call, despite Flynn claiming under oath he was not present.
Matthews stated that on the call, “Flynn and Piatt displayed what I would characterize as a nonchalant attitude during the roughly 25 minute call.” He alleges they “didn’t like the optics of the Guard coming to the Capitol” and wanted the Guard to instead relieve D.C. police officers from other duties so those officers could go to the Capitol.
“Both Piatt and Flynn were obsessively focused on what they considered the bad optics of military personnel at the Capitol during the certification of the election,” Matthews said. “They both stated that they believed that what was transpiring at the Capitol was most appropriately handled by civilian law enforcement personnel, despite the fact the capabilities and resources of the U.S. Capitol Police and MPD were quickly being overwhelmed.”
The delay of over three hours in deploying the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol has been a focus of allegations that Trump attempted an insurrection. However, the January 6 Committee’s final report shows Trump approved National Guard deployment upon receiving the news that the Capitol had been breached. His order was disregarded for several hours by Army Staff Director Walter Piatt and Chief of Staff for Operations Charles Flynn.
The selected committee stated, “Former President Trump’s eagerness to engage the U.S. military to play a visible role in addressing domestic unrest during the late spring and summer of 2020 does appear to have prompted senior military leadership to take precautions, in preparing for the joint session against the possibility that the DC Guard might be ordered to deploy for an improper use.”
Trump’s then-Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller has since confirmed that Trump authorized the National Guard in an Oval Office meeting before January 6th. Miller also said the January 6 Committee threatened him to stop speaking publicly about the events.