Armed Teams With Shoot-to-Kill Authority Reportedly Stationed in DC Days Ahead of Capitol Riot

Thursday will mark the first anniversary of the storming of the seat of US legislative power by angry Trump supporters hoping to disrupt Congress’s rubber-stamping of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Democrats have blamed Donald Trump for the violence, and have been trying to bar him permanently from politics ever since.

Highly trained and heavily armed FBI, US Marshals Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) tactical teams with shoot-to-kill authority were “pre-deployed” at the FBI’s Quantico training facility in Virginia on the weekend of 2-3 January 2021 to prepare to respond to a major emergency in Washington, DC, Newsweek reports, citing congressional testimony.

The forces gathered at Quantico, about 50km from the Capitol, reportedly included commandos from the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, the Render Safe team and FBI SWAT, plus ATF Special Response Teams and the US Marshals’ Special Operations Group.

The teams’ pre-deployment was approved by acting Trump attorney-general Jeffrey Rosen, and they were tasked with swooping into the city aboard helicopters in the event of a major emergency, such as an attack on the president or vice-president, a terrorist incident or Trump’s assassination, in which case they would be deployed to protect potential successors.

The deployment was said to have come without any requests from security bodies in DC itself, including the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department, or from the Secret Service. The former proved ill-prepared for events which unfolded on 6 January at the Capitol complex, offering almost no resistance to rioters as they stormed the legislature.

In testimony to House lawmakers in May, Rosen confirmed that his office had “directed various [Department of Justice] entities to take cautionary steps to alert or pre-position tactical teams if needed for support on January 6.”

“I believe that DOJ reasonably prepared for contingencies ahead of January 6, understanding that there was considerable uncertainty as to how many people would arrive, who those people would be, and precisely what purposes they would pursue,” Rosen said. The former acting attorney-general clarified that these teams were not deployed for any “frontline role with respect to crowd control,” and were focused on responding to “high-risk” contingencies.

FBI tactical teams ended up being deployed on the ground in DC on 6 January, collecting evidence at the Republican and Democrat party headquarters, where explosive devices were reported to be present. FBI SWAT personnel and snipers also took up positions near congressional buildings, with other FBI agents providing security to Capital facilities, lawmakers and staff.

The FBI’s Hostage and Rescue Team commandos entered the Capitol after it was breached, with their mission including assisting police and Secret Service in taking vice-president Mike Pence to an underground parking structure for evacuation, with Pence refusing to leave and staying put underground.

National Guard units were activated and deployed three hours after the Capitol was stormed, and ended up remaining in Washington, DC until May.

News of the drama which unfolded at the Capitol one year ago spread like wildfire across the planet, with Democrat lawmakers and president-elect Biden deeming the protesters “domestic terrorists” and accusing Trump of an “attempted coup". The outgoing president issued tweets urging protesters to “stay peaceful” and “go home”, and has dismissed claims of having any role in the mayhem.

The House of Representatives impeached Trump for a second time over the Capitol unrest (although the Senate later acquitted him), he was banned from Twitter, and lawmakers launched several investigations to investigate the violence further.

On Thursday, federal authorities issued a vague warning to state and local officials asking them to be on the lookout for any “threat actors” who might seek to commit violence ahead of or during the anniversary of the 6 January events. On Sunday, the chief of the Capitol Police warned that the law enforcement agency is plagued by staffing shortages and is nearly “400 officers short of where we need to be”. Lawmakers passed a $2.1 billion Capitol security bill in July, allowing the Capitol Police to open field offices in California and Florida.