Trump White House aide points finger at Jan. 6 National Guard call-up in 14th Amendment trial

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify which information Kash Patel’s testimony about the National Guard contradicted.

Former Trump administration aide Kash Patel on Wednesday denied claims that President Trump chose not to call up the National Guard during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack or delayed efforts to approve their deployments in testimony he provided in the former president’s 14th Amendment case in Colorado.

Patel, who was the chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, argued that it was instead D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser who delayed calls for the National Guard in the days before the riot.

“Mayor Bowser wrote a letter herself on approximately Jan. 4. … declining further requests for National Guard services outside of the 346 National Guardsmen already authorized,” Patel said.

“The authorization came in beforehand. It was relayed to the appropriate officials in D.C. and the Capitol Police. It was declined, and we acted when their request finally came in on January 6,” he continued.

Patel made the argument during the third day of the Colorado 14th Amendment hearings over whether Trump can be removed from the 2024 presidential ballot due to his involvement in the Jan. 6 attacks.

He said that Trump had authorized the deployment of 10,000 to 20,000 National Guard troops to support law enforcement in multiple meetings he witnessed.

But that claim contradicts findings from the House committee investigating Jan. 6, which was told by Trump administration Defense Secretary Christopher Miller that Trump never ordered troop deployments.

“President Trump had authority and responsibility to direct deployment of the National Guard in the District of Columbia, but never gave any order to deploy the National Guard on January 6th or on any other day,” the Pentagon report reads. “Nor did he instruct any Federal law enforcement agency to assist.”

Patel’s testimony also goes against findings by the House Jan. 6 committee, where Miller testified that an order to prepare at least 10,000 National Guard troops was never made.

Patel was the first witness called by the defense in the Colorado case, led by attorneys for Trump’s campaign. Patel currently works as an adviser to the former president for national security issues and as a board member for Trump’s media company.

Updated at 11:46 a.m. Nov. 3