Page:Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.pdf/773

 Secretary McCarthy had asked General LaNeve to convey, the same one Colonel Hunter and law enforcement had already chosen earlier. Major General Walker said, "the only way [Lt. Nick] could have got it was listening to the VTC, which I was on." He further said, "I never saw General LaNeve on the [video teleconference] . . . I didn't hear General LaNeve's voice." Lt. Nick said he had it penned at much later—at 5:09 p.m.—"as the time they received the orders" to deploy.

Major General Walker certainly did not act as if he had been given authority until, fortuitously, General McConville—who had heard about the 4:35 p.m. call—walked by the teleconference screen and was "surprised" to see the commanding general sitting idly at 5:09 p.m.

Major General Walker agreed the first time he heard he had the authority was from the lips of the general: "General McConville came back into the call and said, Hey, you're a go."

Lt. Col. Reinke's QRF and Captain Tarp's second shift got on the bus at 5:10 p.m. They left at 5:15 p.m. Lt. Col. Reinke said they didn't arrive at the Capitol Police parking lot until 5:55 p.m., although official timing from the Army and Department of Defense put their arrival time at 5:40 p.m. and from the DC Guard at 5:20 p.m. At the earliest, the troops arrived in the vicinity of the Capitol grounds at 5:29 p.m., when Lt. Col. Reinke texted Colonel Hunter: "Apparently we pulled into the wrong lot, trying to reroute to LOT 16 now." He said they sat around for 20 minutes once they arrived, and then were sworn in, before relieving an entire line of officers. Captain Tarp said they remained idle for 45 minutes waiting for Capitol Police to come "bus by bus to swear-in the officers. It was a long wait. Frustrating—we're sitting a mile from where we['re] going."

Captain Tarp said, "By the time we got there, we were just holding back the people who remained past the curfew." The height of the riot had passed.

Colonel Hunter estimated that—had his preparations been approved—the DC Guard could have arrived as early as an hour and a half earlier than they did.

"Within one hour, I'd say I could've had 135. So the [about 40] coming from Joint Base Andrews, if they would've headed directly to me at the Capitol, and then the 90 I had on the street and the 4 that were—including myself," he said. "[S]o I arrived at the Capitol at 3:10. So, if I would've recalled everyone by 3:30, 3:40, we could've been—had gear on and walking towards the Capitol."

He further stated: "I would give them another hour. So by 4:40 I should've had at least 250 coming from the Armory . . . That includes the second shift as well as full-timers."