Testimony: Capital Police Chief, Steven Sund
Fearing a riot on Jan. 6, 2021, Sund testified that he asked on Jan. 3 for the National Guard to help secure the Capitol but was rebuffed. “To feel more comfortable, I wanted more personnel on my perimeter,” Sund said in an audio clip of his committee “I first went over, went to Paul Irving’s (House Sergeant-at-Arms) office at 9:24 in the morning, and asked him specifically, ‘I would like to request National Guard for Jan. 6.’ So he, he immediately responded ‘(I) don’t don’t like the optics.’ I responded, you know, I’d like him to help support the perimeter. And he goes, ‘The intelligence.’ The response was the intelligence doesn’t support that.”
Footnote: Sund criticizes the House sergeant-at-arms for allegedly blocking him and cites a lunch meeting with Michael Stenger, the former Senate sergeant-at-arms, discussing Sund’s Jan. 3 request. From Sund’s book: “He (Stenger) said Irving had called him and told him I would be coming his way to request the Guard. According to Stenger, Irving told him, ‘Sund just came here requesting the National Guard. We have to come up with another
plan.”
Michael Stenger, Senate security chief on Jan. 6, dies before hearing
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