Jan. 6 committee didn’t ‘suppress testimony’ about Trump push for 10,000 National Guard troops

Recent reporting claimed the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol hid evidence related to the White House’s response that day.

Conservative news outlets, including The Federalist, The Blaze and Newsmax, reported that the select committee "suppressed testimony" from former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato that proves former President Donald Trump pushed for 10,000 National Guard troops at the Capitol.

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The news outlets cited a transcript of a Jan. 28, 2022, interview with Ornato that Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who leads the House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight, publicly released March 8. House Republicans have reopened an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack because they deemed the select committee’s work "incomplete."

"The Select Committee’s failure to disclose this transcript is additional evidence that the Select Committee only released evidence that fit their narrative," the Oversight Subcommittee said in its first report, released March 11.

The Jan. 6 select committee, composed of seven Democratic members and two Republican members, concluded its work in December 2022 with a 845-page final report. During its 18-month investigation, the select committee held 10 public hearings, interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and collected more than 1 million documents.

Ornato’s January 2022 interview transcript was not publicly released until recently for security reasons, Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told PolitiFact. Both Raskin and Lofgren served on the select committee.

The transcript aligns with the select committee’s conclusion that Trump didn’t order the deployment of 10,000 National Guard troops before or during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. It provides no evidence to negate this finding.

We previously fact-checked claims that Trump requested thousands of troops and Democrats rejected this request. These claims are False. There’s no evidence Trump gave this order.

As part of the select committee’s investigation, the committee members and staff interviewed Ornato and Secret Service personnel. Ornato left the Secret Service in 2019 to become Trump’s deputy chief of staff and was still in that role Jan. 6, 2021.

The select committee was "obligated to return certain Secret Service transcripts," including this Ornato transcript, to the Department of Homeland Security "for redaction of sensitive security information before public release," Raskin told PolitiFact.

Lofgren also said this was the case.

This obligation was documented in a publicly available letter the select committee sent to the Department of Homeland Security in December 2022.

The letter said the transcribed interviews with Secret Service personnel were "not intended for public release" at the Secret Service’s direction. Therefore, the select committee said it summarized facts from these interviews for its final report without revealing the Secret Services’ operational details or its agents’ personal information.

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One of Ornato’s transcribed interviews, conducted in November 2022, was among the select committee’s publicly released materials. The committee said in the letter that this transcript was published because it "addressed a range of intelligence information important to the Committee’s conclusions about January 6th."

The committee noted in the letter that Ornato was not a functioning Secret Service agent at the time and it significantly redacted the November 2022 transcript to address the Secret Service’s security concerns.

The Oversight Subcommittee said in its report that Loudermilk sent letters to the Department of Homeland Security in August 2023 and January 2024 requesting all of the select committee’s interview transcripts. The department said it possessed 12 transcripts and gave the subcommittee six of them. The others have not been released because the department’s review is not complete, the Oversight Subcommittee’s report said.

In the 153-page transcript of Ornato’s January 2022 interview, mentions the National Guard multiple times. Ornato said he recalled Trump floating the number 10,000, but said the president never gave the order.

First, Ornato was asked whether he knew if Trump had asked Jan. 4, 2021, for 10,000 National Guard troops to be deployed Jan. 6, 2021.

Ornato responded, "I was not aware of that."

Soon after, Ornato was asked again whether he recalled any discussions before Jan. 6, 2021, about "having 10,000 troops or any other number of troops" to deploy.

Ornato said he recalled overhearing a phone conversation a day or two before the Capitol attack between Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in which Meadows asked if Bowser needed more guards. Ornato said he had heard only Meadows’ side of the conversation.

"I remember the number 10,000 coming up, you know, the president wants to make sure that you have enough. You know, he is willing to ask for 10,000," Ornato said. "I remember that number. Now that you said it, it reminded me of it."

Ornato said he did not hear any discussion of 10,000 troops after this. Ornato said Meadows asked the Defense Department to set up a quick reaction force at Joint Base Andrews, just outside of Washington, D.C., in case additional National Guard troops were needed.

When asked, Ornato said he knew of no order to deploy National Guard troops on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021.

"And apart from that conversation that you overheard with Mayor Bowser and Chief Meadows, you did not learn of any other additional efforts or (an) order regarding 10,000 troops?" Senior Investigative Counsel Soumyalatha Dayananda asked Ornato.

Ornato responded, "No, not 10,000 troops, no."

Conservative news outlets and social media posts claimed the Jan. 6 select committee "suppressed testimony" from Ornato that proves Trump pushed for 10,000 National Guard troops at the Capitol.

The select committee did not release this transcribed interview with Ornato because it was under the Department of Homeland Security’s review. As a former Secret Service member, Ornato’s transcript needed to be reviewed for potential security concerns.

The select committee considered Ornato’s and other Secret Service testimony when publishing its final report on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. The report concluded that Trump did not directly order deploying 10,000 National Guard troops before or during the attack. Ornato’s interview transcript does not negate this finding.

We rate the claim that the Jan. 6 select committee "suppressed testimony" involving 10,000 National Guard troops False.