Christopher Miller, who served as appearing Protection Secretary on Jan. 6, 2021, instructed the Home committee investigating the assault on the Capitol that former President Donald Trump by no means gave an order to have 10,000 Nationwide Guard troops prepared that day.
"Not from my perspective, I used to be by no means given any course or order or knew of any plans of that nature," Miller stated within the recorded deposition that the committee tweeted Tuesday.
Rep. Liz Cheney, committee vice chair, stated within the recording that former White Home chief of employees Mark Meadows stated in February 2021 that 10,000 Nationwide Guard troops had been instructed to be "on the prepared" by Miller. Different Trump officers have repeated this declare since then.
Miller conceded, "a nonmilitary individual in all probability may have some kind of bizarre interpretation, however no, the reply to your query is not any," when requested if there have been 10,000 troops on the prepared.
When requested instantly if there was a direct order from Trump, Miller stated, "that is right, there was no order from the president."
In final week's public listening to, the Home Jan. 6 committee confirmed testimony from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, saying that former Vice President Mike Pence was the one who ordered the Nationwide Guard to the Capitol.
"Vice President Pence – there have been two or three calls with Vice President Pence," Milley stated within the recorded testimony. "He was very animated, and he issued very express, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no query about that. And I can get you the precise quotes, I suppose, from a few of our information someplace. However he was very animated, very direct, very agency to (Protection) Secretary Miller: Get the navy down right here, get the Guard down right here, put down this case, et cetera."
Milley additionally stated in recorded testimony that Meadows instructed him they needed to "kill this narrative" that the vice chairman was calling the photographs.
"He stated – that is from reminiscence, he stated: 'We now have to kill the narrative that the vice chairman is making all the choices. We have to set up the narrative, you recognize, that the president remains to be in cost and that issues are regular or secure,' or phrases to that impact," Milley testified. "I instantly interpreted that as politics, politics, politics. Purple flag for me, personally, no motion. However I bear in mind it distinctly. And I do not do political narratives."
The committee additionally confirmed recorded testimony of Pence's nationwide safety adviser, Keith Kellogg, saying that he by no means heard of the president asking for a Nationwide Guard or regulation enforcement response. Kellogg stated if troops had been known as as much as assist defend the Capitol, he would have heard of that. And Nick Luna, an aide to Trump, additionally stated in recorded testimony that he was unaware of any requests Trump made to the Nationwide Guard, Pentagon, FBI, Homeland Safety, Service Service or Capitol Police.
Zak Hudak and Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.