A former senior member of the Capitol Police has written a blistering whistleblower letter to members of Congress accusing the force’s leadership of knowingly failing to help their own officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and then obfuscating the fact for personal gain. The former officer spent several hours with Yogananda Pittman, then the Capitol Police’s head of intelligence, and Sean Gallagher, its head of uniformed operations, the day of the attempted insurrection. The whistleblower wrote, “What I observed was them mostly sitting there, blankly looking at the TV screens showing real time footage of officers and officials fighting for the Congress and their lives… It is my allegation that these two with intent and malice opted to not try and assist the officers and officials, blame others for the failures, and chose to try and use this event for their own personal promotions.”

The letter also alleges Pittman lied to Congress about an intelligence report delivered just a day before the riot. Pittman served as acting chief of the force after the former chief resigned, but she returned to her role as head of intelligence in August following a vote of no confidence from rank-and-file officers. Gallagher handled Pittman’s job during her tenure as acting chief but returned to his former job when she did the same. The whistleblower left the Capitol Police six months after the Capitol riot.