Secret Service agents hurried to find a way for then-President Donald Trump to ride in a motorcade with his followers as they marched on Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
In the weeks leading up to the “Stop the Steal” rally, Trump frequently told the Secret Service that he planned to march to the Capitol, The Washington Post reports.
The agency declined his earlier requests, but scrambled to accommodate him on Jan. 6. At the time, Trump encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol. He suggested he would join the protesters.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol,” Trump told his supporters.
According to witnesses who were interviewed by the House Jan. 6 committee, Secret Service requested that D.C. police block intersections to make way for a motorcade. Police, who were already stretched thin, declined the request.
“We were asked, and the response was no,” said Dora Taylor-Lowe, a spokeswoman for the D.C. deputy mayor that oversees the police department.
