Capitol Riots Aftermath: New Details Emerge About Police Action Involving Proud Boys, Counterprotesters

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., took investigators to task Monday about the response by the Capitol Police to hundreds of Proud Boys gathered on Jan. 6 and before the Capitol riot, raising questions about the department’s intelligence resources.

Lofgren's revelations came to light during a House Administrative Committee hearing. She noted that police attention shifted from the massed extremists to three or four counterprotesters, who were “setting up props.”

“Why did the department decide to monitor the … counterdemonstrators but apparently, according to this timeline, not to monitor the Proud Boys?” Lofgren asked Michael Bolton, inspector general to the Capitol Police.

In the first presidential debate with Joe Biden, Donald Trump had famously said "stand back and stand by" to the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has endorsed violence.

“What happened to these 200 Proud Boys over the course of the day?” Lofgren asked Bolton on Monday.

Bolton didn’t have an explanation and said that internal investigations were also trying to account for the gap.

The timeline for an inquiry into radio traffic and command and control was moved up to June.

“We have the same kind of concerns,” Bolton said. “We were also looking at the timeline and calling into question the accuracy… I’m hoping that we will be able to provide you exacting answers after that report.”

A spokesperson for the Capitol Police later clarified to Politico that they had continued to monitor the group, and had secured information on its members.

“USCP pushed that information out to the intelligence distribution,” the spokesperson said. “The department was on the lookout for any and all potential threats on January 6.”

The comments come after Bolton had concluded in a 104-page report released in April that the Capitol Police’s civil disturbance unit, assigned to handle violent protests, was so mismanaged that officers “actively find ways to circumvent getting assigned there” and that there has been little reform since Jan. 6.

The report revealed that department leaders overlooked important intelligence leading up to the riot. One warning included that “Congress itself is the target.”

The Associated Press noted that the committee this week will hear from Christopher Failla, the inspector general for the architect of the Capitol.