House Democrats request documents from DHS intelligence office about Jan. 6 attack

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee are asking the intelligence division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to turn over documents related to the riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

The letter, directed at DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, asks the agency to turn over its intelligence analyses leading up to the attack and any correspondence with other law enforcement and intelligence partners.

The request follows a report from the Wall Street Journal that said a Jan. 5 national summary from the office found “nothing significant to report” the day before the attack.

“In October 2020, DHS warned about the heightened potential for violence particularly toward government officials. Yet, according to a recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article, on January 5, I&A sent a national summary to law enforcement across the country stating there was ‘Nothing significant to report,’ in the lead-up to the attack,” Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), chair of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism, wrote in the letter.

“We are concerned about these inconsistencies, which may have prevented adequate preparation by the Federal government in advance of the Capitol siege.”

DHS did not respond to request for comment on the letter.

The request for information comes as numerous congressional committees are conducting probes of several intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the wake of the Capitol breach that left several people dead, including a Capitol Police officer.

A coalition of six Senate committees earlier this month took the unusual step of jointly requesting information from 22 different law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies for an account of their response to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman and acting House Sergeant-at-Arms Timothy Blodgett are set to appear before the House Appropriations Committee this coming Thursday, and a number of former Capitol-based law enforcement officials have been asked to appear before a joint session with the Senate’s Rules and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees on Tuesday.