Chairman Loudermilk Requests Department of Defense Office of Inspector General Correct Final January 6th Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Select Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) sent a letter to the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) outlining inaccuracies and omissions in its final January 6th report as it relates to the delay of the National Guard. The letter also requested that the department re-examine its investigation and issue a corrected report. 

Read excerpts of the letter: 

"The Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding January 6, 2021 (“Select Subcommittee”) is conducting oversight of the events that occurred at the Capitol and the response and subsequent investigation. Last Congress, the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight successfully highlighted security failures that the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (“January 6th Select Committee”) failed to investigate.  This Congress, the Select Subcommittee has continued its oversight of the federal agencies that responded to the events of January 6, ensuring that the unresolved questions are answered, that federal agencies are faithfully serving the American people, and that the United States Capitol Complex is secure. Accordingly, based on information obtained by the Select Subcommittee, we write to request that you re-examine the factors that caused the delayed Department of Defense (DoD) response to the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

"A large component of the security apparatus for January 6 included the DoD, specifically the District of Columbia National Guard’s (DCNG) response to the civil unrest and its aftermath at the Capitol. On November 16, 2021, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) published a report titled, Review of the DoD’s Role, Responsibilities, and Actions to Prepare for and Respond to the Protest and its Aftermath at the U.S. Capitol Campus on January 6, 2021.  This report was the final product of the DoD OIG’s review of the events on January 6, 2021, examining how the DoD responded to requests for support on that day. While the Select Subcommittee appreciates the DoD OIG’s review of DoD’s records and materials, there are concerns that the report did not accurately assess the DoD’s actions that day. 

"On October 30, 2025, we sent a letter to the Department of War, requesting documents related to January 6, 2021.  On December 19, 2025, the Department of War produced over ten thousand pages of documents responsive to our inquiry.  After a thorough examination of this material, as well as other relevant information, it is apparent that the DoD’s severe restrictions on the use of the DCNG led to a delayed deployment of the DCNG to the Capitol on January 6.  In particular, information from firsthand witnesses indicates that senior Department of War officials took deliberate steps to restrict the DCNG’s civil disturbance capabilities in the days prior to January 6, 2021.  These restrictions resulted in command paralysis by Pentagon leadership, who traveled to Metropolitan Police Headquarters (MPD), at the height of violence and chaos at the Capitol, to draft a “concept of operations” (CONOP).  To this day, neither the DoD nor the DoD IG has produced any tangible evidence for the existence of this CONOP. The Select Subcommittee also possesses evidence that immediate and dire requests for activation of the DCNG were received and acknowledged at the highest levels of DoD leadership many hours before they granted DCNG deployment authorization.  However, the DoD OIG November 2021 report failed to evaluate this delay."

Read the full letter here.