The security and intelligence services of the United States are immersed in a demanding and complicated task.
On the one hand they have to plan and adopt all possible protective measures to guarantee a smooth investiture ceremony for Joe Biden next 20 from January.
At the same time, they are investigating the events of January 6, when hundreds of followers of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol with violence after attending a march in which the president himself encouraged them to fight in protest of the election result.
The riots caused five deaths and multiple injuries, and as of this weekend there had been more than 149 arrests.
Beyond identifying and arresting participants in the assault, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies are investigating whether there was pre-planning for the attack and who the organizers were.
To this is added the accusation of a group of Democratic congressmen who suspect that the assailants may have had the support of some of their colleagues of the Republican caucus.
Objective: kidnapping and murder
Several federal agencies are working on an in-depth investigation of the events of the 6th, led by the FBI office in Washington DC and the Department of Justice, and more details are being revealed as days go by.
This Friday, the acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael Sherwin, revealed that the investigation points to the objective of the mob was “kidnap and assassinate legislators” .
The fact that many of Trump’s violent supporters wore handcuffs and plastic ties to immobilize someone points in that direction.
The newspaper The Washington Post reported that a group of assailants arrived very close to Vice President Mike’s office Pence, just a minute after the security forces had moved him to safety.
He was not the only one who was close to danger.
Other congressmen avoided direct encounters with the attackers for a few minutes, which has led to more and more voices questioning the operation of the security measures, specifically the role played by the Capitol Police.
In this sense, the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, also announced this Friday the opening of another investigation focused on the security of the Capitol that will be in the hands of the retired general Russel Honoré.
Online mobilization
For organizations that monitor the activities of radical and far-right groups on the internet, the violence of January 6 was not a surprise and the authorities should have been better prepared.
SITE International Group, a firm specialized in supplying information to governments and global institutions on terrorist threats or from extremist groups, published an exhaustive article on the indications that existed of a possible revolt .
“Many still don’t understand how openly the Capitol revolt was planned. It came after a month of rampant strategies and incitements to ‘attack and occupy’ Congress and kidnap / arrest legislators, ”wrote Rita Katz, SITE director on Twitter.
Groups such as the Coalition for a Safer Internet, Advance Democracy or Alethea also alerted, before day 6, about the conversations that were taking place online ahead of the march in Washington DC.
The exchange of messages took place on platforms frequented by Trump followers such as TheDonald.win or Parler, but also on more widely used networks such as Facebook or Twitter, where tags such as # StormTheCapitol (“Let’s attack the Capitol”) or # StopTheSteal (“Stop Theft”) encouraged mobilization.
There are those who say that prior planning takes away responsibility from Trump for what he said in the speech on the 6th, to which other people respond that it was the president himself who encouraged those preparations by inviting his followers to go to the rally with these words: “Be there! It will be wild! ”.
“The supporters interpreted that ‘it will be wild’ as giving them free rein” Katz tweeted, who in a conversation between Trump supporters read the following comment: “Trump cannot openly tell you to rebel … This is the closest he can get.”
Unusual guided tours
Other Surprising twists of the week have been the suspicions expressed by some Democratic congressmen who suggest that Trump supporters had support within Congress.
The most striking alert was raised by the Democrat for New Jersey Mikie Sherrill, who released a video in which she said that on the 5th, the eve of the violent day, she saw several people inside the Capitol on guided tours that she described as “reconnaissance tours” for the next day.
In this regard, Sherrill and some thirty Democratic congressmen signed a letter addressed to those responsible for the security of the Capitol in which they demand that that detail be investigated.
The document states that some of the signatories “witnessed a large number of outside groups in the Capitol complex on January 5.”
Congressmen recall that due to the pandemic public visits to the Capitol have been canceled and therefore only members of Congress (legislators or other staff members) could have facilitated access to that group of people.
“Members of the group that attacked the Capitol appear to have had unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol complex. The presence of these groups on the Capitol the day before is undoubtedly suspicious, “the Democratic congressmen point out in the letter.
Other observers have also been surprised by the apparent ease with which some of the robbers moved inside the Capitol for how labyrinthine it is.
“Difficult to believe”
The possible involvement of Republican congressmen, of whom no names have been made public, it has aroused astonishment and concern, but also some reactions of disbelief and rejection.
Republican Vern Buchanan, congressman from Florida, believes the accusation is “ hard to believe”.
“Congresswoman Sherrill’s allegations of a criminal conspiracy by unidentified members of Congress is surprising and hard to believe.” said.
“If you have evidence that a member of Congress made reconnaissance visits to help the rioters plan last week’s attack, you have to reveal immediately . I did not see any of that when I was in the building that week and I would be very surprised to know that it is true. ”
When faced with a question from the press about it, Pelosi was clear and highlighted two words: truth and trust.
“We have to trust colleagues, we all took the same oath to defend and protect the Constitution from any foreign or internal enemy,” said the Democratic leader with the right hand making the gesture of the oath.
“However, we must investigate. If it is shown that there were accomplices who instigated and seconded , we will have to take measures that will go beyond Congress, we will have to process them. ”
The FBI has avoided ruling on whether these alarming accusations are being investigated , of which no conclusive evidence has been provided.
BBC Mundo contacted both the Capitol Police and the FBI office in Washington DC. The respective spokesmen said they cannot give details.
Two of the testimonies that have had the most echo these days and that show the distrust between some Democrats and Republicans have been those of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) and Ayanna Pressley (Alabama).
Both congressmen have reported that at the time of taking refuge during the attack they preferred not to be with the rest of the legislators in case their Republican colleagues handed them over to the assailants
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