Organizers of the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol attack actively hid information from the National Park Service that would have influenced the security plans for the event, a new report from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Interior Department revealed. The 45-page report comes nearly three years after the riot and focuses on the "Save America" rally preparations undertaken by the National Park Service and U.S. Park Police, ABC News reports.
The report found that organizers from Women for America First failed to supply information about former President Donald Trump's likely attendance at the rally and hid information about the plans to march to the Capitol after the event, despite a clear request for that information from the National Park Service. While event planners repeatedly affirmed there were no plans to march, evidence reviewed by the OIG found that the organization expected Trump to call for one. "We asked [the WFAF representative] repeatedly if she was going to do a march ... So, um, basically she lied to all of us," the permit specialist told investigators, per the report, after being shown text messages from a WFAF representative stating plans for a march.
The report also concluded that the National Park Service lacked evidence of the event posing potential danger to deny permits to the event planners. Intelligence reports in the lead-up to the rally provided contradictory information about the chance of violence at the Capitol. "Groups with diametrically opposed beliefs and ideologies will both be present, and if these groups are allowed to come into close contact with each other, violence is almost certain," warned a late December intelligence report from the Park Police. A Jan. 5 communication between Capitol Police and Park Police, however, found the chance of a threat "highly improbable" and "remote."
