Ex-Defense Sec: Trump Never Ordered Troops to Protect Capitol on Jan. 6
The former president previously claimed he had “suggested & offered” up to 20,000 National Guard troops be deployed to Washington, D.C.

Alex Wong/Getty
One-time acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller told the House Jan. 6 committee that former President Donald Trump never gave an order to ready 10,000 troops to be deployed to Washington, D.C., ahead of the Capitol insurrection, according to new footage of Miller’s deposition released Tuesday by the panel. “I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature,” Miller said in the video, adding: “We obviously had plans for activating more folks, but that was not anything more than contingency planning. There was no official message traffic or anything of that nature.” Trump previously said he had “suggested & offered up to 20,000 National Guard” be deployed to be Capitol, “because it was felt that the crowd was going to be very large.” Testimony previously given to the Jan. 6 committee by Gen. Mark Milley and Keith Kellogg, at the time national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, revealed that Trump never requested a law enforcement response to the Capitol as he watched the attack unfold.
To remove any doubt: Not only did Donald Trump fail to contact his Secretary of Defense on January 6th (as shown in our hearing), Trump also failed to give any order prior to January 6 to deploy the military to protect the Capitol.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) July 26, 2022
Here is Secretary Miller’s testimony— pic.twitter.com/joucnUHvBB
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