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tv   Law Enforcement Officials Testify on Jan. 6 Pipe Bombs  CSPAN  March 18, 2024 3:27pm-5:04pm EDT

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can shop.org to preorder your copy today for delivery this next the investigation into bite box outside a republican and democratic national committee headquarters in washington d.c. january 6, 2021. capital police fbi special agent. lawmakers on the share capital police audio and video footage from the generator six attack and stress concerns about vice president harris and close proximity to one of the bombs in the ongoing investigation. the n hour and a half.
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>> the subcommittee on oversight will come to order. the chair may declare a recess at any time. also without objection the memby submit materials they wish to be included therein. today we have congressman ryan ing us has waived onto the subcommittee to dissipate in today's drink. he will arrive a little later. as a army disposal technician, is well-positioned to expose any failures of the january 6 responses will analyze today. will analyze today. i appreciate having him here we look forward to his discussion.
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thank you ranking member torres, members of the subcommittee and or witnesses for joining us at today's oversight hearing.%3■ n incredibly dark day for our country. our capitol was overrun some individuals assaulted the u.s. capitol police officers and they breached our halls. additionally explosive devices were placed at the dnc and the rnc threatening our security. today, will focus on identifying the numerous security failures that preceded and continue to persist following the discoveryd of explosive devices near the u.s. capitol complex on january 6, 2021. although it has been more than three years we still have man q. according to the fbi there are still no suspects as to who planted the devices found near the rnc and the dnc. i know i shared many people's concerns there has been no
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additionally the generally sick select committee was meant to dive into the failures and investigations of january 6 completely neglected to january6 completely neglected to despite former speaker nancy pelosi house democrats spending millions of dollars in there two years of the select committee investigation into the pipe bomb was basically nonexistent. their 845 page final report only referred to the pipe bomb fivem. these references are situational as far as i can tell no investigation was conducted. in contrast of the term mentionn the report 1901 times. i refused to follow the select committee's footsteps and conducting partisan investigation. there were genuine and regrettable security failures on generous six. the response to the devesas one of the most alarming. here are the facts at approximately 12:42 p.m. the united states capitol police received reports of an explosive
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device found rnc. at roughly one oh 5:00 p.m. a second device was discovered at the dnc vice president lex kamala harris was inside the building. the vice president-elect came within feet of the device which if detonated could have caused serious bodily harm. cctv footage indicates the devices were planted the night before by an individual carrying a backpack and wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, a mask, gloves, glasses and a pair of nike air max speed turf sneakers. despe on numerous u.s. capitol police tv cameras and the fbi efforts interviewing over 800 individuals in asssingoran 300 t still remains at large. unfortunately fbi has failed to provide subsidee the investigation despite numerous requests from congressional committees. today they have declined to
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participate in our hearing. we are joined by several experts today who will help shed light on the devices response including u.s. capitol police, assistant chief sean gallagher. on a january 6, 2021 assistant chief gallagher directed a counter surveillance to the dnc following the the device at the rnc. today it will spend time analyzing the discrepancies of the devices response ultimately this hearing is meant to help us all move forward. i look forward to your testimony assistant chief gallagher into working together so we can ensure shortcomings ofhis nature do not happen again. i salute and apply the capitol police officers who day in and day out devote their l protecting the members in the halls of congress and the thousands of visitors who were here every day. we have a lot to morning. i now recognize the ranking member ms. torres for five minutes for the purpose of
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providing an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman i to join you in welcoming the witnesses to our hearing. thank you for your many years of service to our community. i understand how important and dangerous sure jobs truly are. especially when forced to protect us from those who choose ballots to achieve their ends. i also know from many years working at the 911 dispatcher■t÷ that it is usually premature to assess law enforcement response to a criminal act while investil active and ongoing. and i am sure my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know this. which leads me too wonder what exactly is this that we are
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doing here this mor maybe it is to pedal crazy right wing conspiracy theories about the generally sixth pipe bombspf the internet. or maybe we are here so this subcommittee can once again tried to model our history. two of the illinois law enforcement and undo the of the bipartisan january 6 select committee. all to distract from the simple fact t f for president orchestrated a corrupt theme to overturn the results of a free d fair election. when that did not work he summoned an armed mob, rattled them up dispatch them to the capitol. endangering the lives of everyone working here that day,
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including members of congress not to mention putting at risk the lives of the outgoing and incoming vice i was in the house gallery when the capitol was breached. it is imperative that all of why be held accountable for their actions including and especially whoever placed pipe bombs at the dnc and the rnc. takeexperts are tasked withy solving a crime, but also identifying potential characteristics to prevent
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future threats from the church bombings that terrorized communities throughout the civil rights movement to the bombing enforcement agencies have always had to work tirelessly, sometimes for years and decadess needed to fully investigate, identify and prosecute domestic violence■ike whomever placed these bombs. fbi director christopher rae ray testified before the january committee, the judiciary committee last year that his agents reviewed 40,000 videophiles and assessed more than 500 tips. law enforcement spent thousands of man-hours investigating the crime and i have faith that they will continue to so until the perpetrator is brought to justice. while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and i disagree
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on some things, i hope that we can acknowledge and respect the vital work that law enforcement including federal law enforcement does on behalf. just last week house republicans included cuts toureau of alcoho, tobacco and firearms explosive programs in their appropriations bills for fiscal year 24. if they were serious about this investigation and supported law enforcement efforts, they wouldn't have cut critical funding f law enforcement needed to solve these crimes and others. this committee shouldn't be used as a platform to feed into internet conspiracy theorists. rather i look forward to discussing and learning more about the responsibilities and complexities of the important work the fbi and its partners are engaged in from our witnesses. thank you once again foring
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tho justify at the hearing and i yield back. >> i now recognize the full committee ranking member for five minutes for the ppose of providing an opening statement. >> thank you mr. chairman and thanks to the witnesses for joining us to all the brave men and women of the capitol police, fbi and other law enforcement for the work they do each and every day tohee which is no easy task but we are grateful nonetheless. i must admit i am perplexed as to why we are here for a public hearing on an active criminal investigation especially one in which the fbi has repeatedly told congress including member t discussing an ongoing investigation would undermine its integrity and make it more difficult to catch the peet is the goal, to undermine the integrity of an ongoing investigation. i certainly hope not, but here we sure what the
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precise goal is i certainly hope it is treated with the seriousness it deserves and that 's niracy theories about the fbi and the united states capitol police. throughout this congress republicans d to defend agencies like the fbi and the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms and explosives. in fact at least one house republican has teachers on their websites that same defund the fbi. i must point out the irony of my friendon t criticizing the pace of this investigation while at the same time proudly attempting to defend the fbi, atf and other agencies leading the inquiry. how's does it make sense to criticize the pace or the resources allocated while simultaneously taking those resources away? i'm not the only one confused. the executiveec of police summed
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it up well, to withhold funding for lawh■ enfor■úcement is at variance with common sense. yet it's not just the funding. this entire congress, house repuic■/pdans echoed theiz accusations that the fbi has weaponize against the american people and that it cannot be trusted in fact before its technical difority of the subcoe from doing so, the command speaker admitted that his allies on the subcommit in the january 6th footage released because, quote, we don't want them to be retaliated against him charged by the department of justice. imagine that. people who might have broken the lawe don't want to have them be retaliated against for crimes they might have committed. as i'm sure witnesses can attest law enforcement relies on the cooperation of membersf to pere
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investigations all leveling these baseless accusations against the fbi to discourage witnesses and members of the public who may be helpful and have information from corroboration. don't get me wrong it's key that the individual who placed or individuals who placed bombs at the dnc and rnc ahead of the january 6 attack be i appreciate the majority interest, i'm not sure how the hearing will help advance that a goal or with the kennedy and hoe possibly do legislatively to speed up in active fbi investigation. again i thank the witnesses for being here for your service and and i am looking forward to your testimony and with that i yield. >> the gentleman yields. this hearing is to review the handling of two the
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safety and security of republicans and democrats and visitors to the city. i w this could and should be a bipartisan hearing and i hope that it will be. the fbi has been years. this hearing is not about the fbi, nor its investigation. it's about the response and the process of responding to three very dangerous devices that provide an eminent risk to people here at the capital. the fbi was invited to be here today but they declined and i believe we have assembled anu8et can help us break down the response.tg this hearing isn't about the fbi investigation but something this committee does have oversight of which is the capital pole enfot
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how they respond to incidents like this. without objection all other members opening statements will m they are submitted, if they are submitted by 5 p.m. today. pursuant to paragraph b of the commee six the witnesses will please stand and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony that you are to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? let the record to show the affirmative, you may be seated in thank you all. i will now introduce the witnesses. the first witnesses the u.s. capil police assistant chief for uniformed operations mr. sean gallagher. thank you for your long-term service to the u.s. capitol police and members year. assistant chief gallagher joined in 2001 and on january 6, 2021 was the deputy chief for the protective service bureau. we are grateful that you are
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here today, assistant chief calgary and we look forward to your perspective regarding the response and how we can improve in the future. our next witness is mr. sean dennis the cofounder, president and ceo zero of the association. mr. dennis served at the bomb squad commander special operations sergeant for the county sheriff's offic andyó centennial colorado. i hope i got that name pronounced correctly. he's been involved in the bomb technician and explosives community for the quarter quarter-century of 25 years. the next witness is a former washington metropolitan area transit authority head canine detection trainer. did i get that right? close enough. he spent as an explosive canine trainer and handler and has supervised thousands from explosive devices. si of the dnc
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was not available to testify before the subcommittee today, we look forward to hearing the perspective on the canine secuswrity s of the dnc. what went right and what possibly may have gone wrong. the final witness is a big f th. a former fbi special agent and master bomb technician. he was the 1995 oklahoma city bombing, 1996 atlanta bombing and the 9/11 world trade center attacks among others. in 2022, he was awarded as an honorary u.s. commander for his work withity forces and military working dogs. as i said, we have a very impressive panel of experts that i think can help them navigate us here appreciate the witnesses being here today and look forward to your testimony. as a reminder, we read your written statements and it will appearn the full hearing record. under committee rule nine, you
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are to limit your oral presentation to a brief summary of your written statement unlesn consultation with the ranking member. please remember to turn on your microphones using the button in front of you s hear. if you don't, i will very politely remind you to turn your microphone of you will turn green. after four minutes, it will turn yellow. when the red light comes on, your five minutes has expired. you don't have to stop midsentence, but we would ask that you please wrap up your statements once the red light i illuminated. i now recognize the assistant chief gallagher for five minutes. members of the committee. thank you for the invitation to testify today about the january 6 pipe bombs. the department greatly
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appreciates the continued commitment to carry out their duties of protecting the members congress, visitors and the entire capital complex and legislative process each and every day. congress' support has been invaluable as we continue to work on building the lessons learned from january 6th while also meeting the dramatic workload increases and increasing volatilehreat environment. as you know, the united states capital police patrol a campus that is open. the public is a constitutional right to visit and petition and our officers and civilians workr you are here on capitol hill or whether you travel to your home district. our mission is vast and responsibilities have e■ovhe ye. the threat has morphed from securing the buildings to the threat of a1 scenario and now to be an unprecedented
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increase to members and their families. january 6, 2021■ however, that safety was threatened in a number of ways including the placement of two pipe bombs, one in an alley behind the capitol grounds, which is adjacent to the republican national committee, and one is the democratic national committee just off capital grounds. i'd likc5e t the events of the day with the pipe bombs and then i'd like to answer any questions the committee may have. january 6, 2020 ■ when i was in charge of the predicted services bureau was the chief and our protective services bureau is our dignitary protective vision, and our investigation division. on january 6, that approximately 12:44, one of our officers was notified by the republican secut there appeared to be a pipe bomb located at the rear of the alley. a command post was established by 12:49 into the device is located during the search of the
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area. around the same time one of the canine technicians identified a pickup truck parked directlyin k appearing to be weighed down. the pickup truck was parked directly across1j3k the street d assets from the department hazardous device section more commonly known as the bomb squad began to assess at approximately 12:52. the pipe bomb was eventually disrupted by the bomb squad and cleared at approximately 3 p.m mentioned that the canine technician located was declared suspicious and members of the bomb squad began to assess the vehicle at approximately 3:25. the vehicle was found to contain cocktails, canisters, spray, canisters full of ammunition, rifle, shotgun, handgun, multiple machetes and owner of s later identified, arrested and
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ultimately serving 47 months in federal prison. the overall scene was cleared at approximately 6:30 p.m. as a result of the discovery of the pipe bomb, members of the department's counter surveillance unit as they have been trained to do began to push out and search for other locations for either suspicious packages, suspicious people or similar devices. at approximately 1 p.m., the department requested transit to have trains bypass the metro due nce of the pipe bomb. at 1:07 approximately 23 minutes after the capitol police was alerted of the pipe bomb at rnc, two of the agents located what appeared to be a similar pipe bomb underneath the bench in front of the building was evt about 1:11 p.m. and officers immediately began to clear the residences and businesses in the area.
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the scene was cleared at approximately 4:36 after the bomb squad disrupted and cleared the pipe bombs. possession of both devices and all evidence and as the lead agency on the entire investigation. it is my understanding devices y functional and a viable pipe bombs. however, it is not clear whether they would have gone off on their own how do they not bnereb squad. as noted earlier the bomb squad successfully handled an extremely dangerous situation on january 6th, but since then we've determined additional improvements are necessary. but the department has continued to seek ways to improve the operations o the policies, processes and implementing numerous changes related to civil disturbance unit, operati equipment, incidet command and internal communications as well as a host of other areas. since january 6 tad technicians began receiving specialized advanced training
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from the certified exclusive specialist technician training with an elite team that is one of only 14 such in the country now. the bomb squad is also participating in the raven challenge which includes the public safety squads and military teams performing realistic operational scenarios. the bomb squads remain one of the largest and one of the most capable squads in the entire country. and the changes noted above wiln better prepared to respond to any similar incidents. finally, i want to■, make sure that i know, and this is important. i'm extremely proud that none of these two pipe bombs nor any of the cocktails on the debateplod. this is without a doubt directly due to the outstanding efforts not only of the bomb squad but other members of the u.s. polic. we now know based on the video surveillance that both of these devices have been placed the■< ,
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2021. while there is footage of the suspect, to date nobody has been arrested despite the 500,000delery were by the fbi ay hours of hard work by the fbi and other law enforcement agencies. i do hope one day the person or rsonspo these explosive devices on capital grounds will be brought to justice by the fbi. the department thinks the committee for its support and w the continued partnership with congress. i welcome any questions. thank you. >> mr. dennis, you are regn minutes. >> good morning, chairman, ranking member and members of the subcommittee. thank you for the opportunity today to provide background on the response to improvised explosive devices in the united a
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retired sheriff from the county sheriff's office in denver at the retirement i worked for the transportation security administration as an exclusive specialist at the denver international airport. it is during this time i along with a small military and public safety initiatives with a similar background recognized the need for an organization to support thecomm. we felt underrepresented despite the critical role we were playing to keep our homeland safe. in 2016, we formed the association known as the u.s. bta. and today we represent over 5,000 active military and public safety initiatives by educating ose in the position of leadership on the desperate needs of this community. it also conducts technology training exercises to■& identify technology and training deficit within the bomb community. in addition, conducting research involving counter ied tools and equipment along■- research characterizing hazardous homemade explosives.
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the lessons learned from our training and research are used to give the public safety bomb technicians the capability to render safe ied's and a safe, efficient and effectiveas in the communities that we would like to highlight today include one, training and certifications. public safety bomb technicians receive basic traing and8ificati hazardous devices in alabama consisting of a six week curriculum. bomb technicians recve a variety of education and training from various u.s. government entities such as the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and explosives, the fbi and dhs. the national bomb squad commanders advised national guidelines to conduct 24 hours of monthly training in addition to the certica with. furthermore bomb squads into the technicians seek provisional organizations and industries to
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increase the knowledge. number two, incident response, challenges been called to an incident in which a suspect package or hazardous material has been identified. first and foremost, they are facing the unknown. only the person responsible for the construction and who and ths actions. for the preservationvh life and last challenges upon arrival the following, the initial intelligence. first responders assistance provided to the responding technicians the only provided a portion of the information required. determination of the envi identification of single or multiple devices. potential of secondary devices, unseen targeting first responders, location device, standoff area densely populated with bystanders and civilians,
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inability to evacuaten timely manner. having the appropriate abutment available to handle the call for weather conditis, adequate personnel for safe operations. possibly a remote detonation by the bomb maker limiting the y to remain remote and remember if you can see the device the device can see you. communications among team members and command staff. although not present during the event that took place january 6, 2021, i'm aware of some of the challenges they might have faced as i have experienced similar churing my time at the bomb squad commanders of the sheriff's office. the job is inherently dangerous and stressful. when we are called upon the situation most don't have to face in their normal lives the decisions you make in a short period of time have consequences that can cost your life and the lives of the you. there's no opportunity for do
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overs were further discussions. there is the term of the community posted outside of t door of the classroom to remind us the initial success and a total failure. the trouble displaced by the bomb squad on that january 6 event were extraordinary as they are required to navigate the multiple devices in and around the critical infrastructure buildings in the general population in protesting within their scene. by all accounts, it is my opinion the bomb squad challenges professionally and renders the device safe avoiding harm or injury to themselves or others and are able to collect evidence to determine who is responsible. i'm proud of the community we represent and we will continue to advocate to ensure they have the appropriate resources, personnel, training and technology and when they are faced with thesexhallenges in giving the communities safe. thank you and i will yield back to the chair. >> you are now recognized for five minutes.
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>> i'm a retired veteran of the k-9 unit and transit authority. i began my career in 1992 and spent the years of my career training k-9 teams. in this role i had the responsibility of training from the time they were acquired through their certification and maintaining training records for handling and during the career i've conducted for supervised in excess of 35,000, sorry, 35,000 explosive eaks scenarios utilizg throughout washington, d.c. metro systems. many of my friends and co career responded on january 6,
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2021. i'm here today to answer any questions you mnformation that , that the committee deems useful. i'd like to thank the chairman as well as all of the other committee members for help in law enforcement and i yield backnk you. we appreciate the time management and with that length of testimony, you could become a very popular witness for a lot of committees. you are recognized for five minutes. >> good morning, chairman, ranking member torres and members of the committee, it is a pleasure to be with you this evening. last week i was asked to consider the status of the investigation regarding the subject left two devices before the rnc and dnc back in january of 2021.
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as a founding member of the evidence respo team i'm familiar with the way the investigations are conducted. after i required i took the position as an instructor to leading scientists where i teach e processing into the forensic investigation of mass disasters and one thing i tell my students as ms. torres eluded to come of the fact just doesn't exist. as a product of television shows that depict forensic science as a silver bullet that is omnipresent and can almost immediately point to specific subject,■d times it is just unavailable and investigators have to rely on other types of investigative techniques. timesy related to the identity of a suspect. by way of olympic
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bomber placed for devices over a two-year period despite forensic examinations during that time. the identity remained elusive and it took eyewitnesses to come forward with that said they saw suspicious man in a specific type of truck. prior to the blast that killed a police officer, it was thosetip. similarly, ted kaczynski was active for 17 years, despite the third zero forensic examinations of over a dozen devices during that period. his identity remained elusive primarily because he went to great lengths to obscure. it wasn't until the manifesto was published that his brother provided a tip and that is what brought focus, not the yrsforen. responding to the bombing of an air force station that we were processing on the crime scene
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bomb and a specializedf the customized timing device. as we collected the dividends submission of the laboratory again, the witness came forward and indicated they saw a suspicious man driving a blast using air force personnel we developed a suspect and within 24 hourseígnd that individuals home and recovered to viable time bombs and they werbl the scene, but ia witness testimony that pointed to that a suspect. as for the january 6 suspect i s effort to disguise that person's identity making the personal identification diffi records it appears they were
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comprised of very simple and common components available almost anywhere and that makes it difficult tora who purchasede components. i understand hundreds if not thousands of interviews conducted in tenseo images haven reviewed and hundreds of tips. once the forensic evidence has been exhausted and all the leads have been covered new information is recovered. so have a million-dollar reward may one day provide the key that will unlock this case and at that time i'm certain the dedicated men and women. >> thank you all.
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we are going to enter into the question portion now. as some of you may not have participated in a hearing like this. we will alternate between republican and democrat back ane minutes and so many have multiple questions so we ask that you be thorough but concise for facts to review what happened and see how we can go forward and with that, one of the to a s going off of evidence after the fact. fortunately we do have videomg the placing of the pipe bombs as well as the response. so today we will be utilizing some u.s. capitol footage
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to help us break these things down. now as most of you know, there is not any audio associated with we didn't hire a hollywood producer to produce sound effects, but what we did do is overlay the radio communications over the top of the video to save time so whatever audio you are hearing is actually where wo communications commensurate with the video. according to the fbi,■] both devices were planted of the night before, but they were discovered more than 16 hours later in the early afternoon of january 6, 2021. one of the questions the subcommittee is interested in as a part of our oversight responsibilities is the law enforcfter the devices were discovered specifically setting and maintaining a perimeter around those devices. at roughly 12:42, the first
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device was discovered near the rnc at approximately 1:212 civilians to walk past to the rnc and entered the capital metro station directly across from the alley where the f disc. the capital police footage shows no police presence and to prevent the perimeter. approximately one minute later the police officer makes the following broadcast over the radio, can we please play that8 tape. i have people walking down first street right in front of the
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republican club. someone isn't doing their job. >> assistant chief gallagher, you can clearly see in the video the r sidewalk post that indicates there's already been the response and presence the.ave been established by 1:21 p.m.? >> thank you, chairman. for incidences of this nature first officer on the scene will be setting up the incident command and command posdure is o identify the parameters and set up limiter for a safe distance away from a hazard. so yes, there should have been a perimeter at thation.
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as the incidence of an ongoing we are dealing with of the eastbound and westbound of the pita as well so manpower is very succinct and any officers that come to help set up a parameter are coming from another area. we don't just have response teams waiting around to set up parameters so there could have been a delay in getting there. >> in your opinion, was there a safe perimeter?ng at the video,s hard to tell. with the assistant chief, it's setting up a good perimeter like that for the safety of the bomb squad to act. in your opinion there should have been. is that a priority fromou
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experience? >> responding to an incident to such as this, it is extremely important for the parameter to be set up in a timely manner to act■(■< appropriately. >> okay. in your opinion, was there a safe perimeter of the rnc? from the video, it is tough to■- tell. to establish the command post and set up a perimeter a safe distance away it was difficult to tell not being familiar with the■ area, but these are phases so when the suspect devices first noticed, then the first oa safe perimeter until the assets can arrive on scene. >> why is it important to
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establish a secure parameter perimeterearly on and maintain t perimeter throughout the day? why is that a prayer ready to quarantine off that area? >> when the bomb squad is responding into setting up their own internal command post if you will regarding dealing with the incident or t potential id suspect packages, it is extremely important for the establishments in■7 parameter to make sure that everybody is both civilian as well as even othelaforcement personnel are far enough away and a safe manner so the bomb squad could act appropriately. now to complicate things even further as the assistant chief said, there were multiple instances going on. there were other instances going on at the democratic nationale. a similar they failed to secure the perimeter at a much larger scale. the discovered after
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the discovery law enforcement should have established a secure perimeter. at various points in the afternoon with before and after device we had of the device. instances before and after. let's go ahead and play thisg. and again, this is a montage. riving vehicles driving right past the package. we need to make sure that officers are posted right now and make sure nobody walks past
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this package. >> that is where the package for example at 2:01, the officer incorrectly announced fire in the hole at the rnc. when they meant to say dmz. at 2:05 the officer correct the mistake and assess fire in the .
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mr. black, what does the term fire in the hole mean? >> generally the term would be indicating indicative of an explosion is about to happen. it's a range term when we are about to detonate a charge on an explosive range would mean the explosion has gone over. in other words lookout, clear the area. what could this mistake lead to when dealing with multiple scenes in words there's two going on in very similar names, but again it was correcd at se lead to? declaring fire in the hole that the wrong location? >> yes, sorry. obviously information critical with what's going on at a particular event is absolutely critical for theltiple devices s
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and other problems in other areas complicating communications any. sorry i called you mr. dennis, my fault. do you have anything to add to that? >> i concur. an unmarked police car drives next to the robot as it prepares to disrupt bomb. is it safe for a vehicle to drive within feet of the device whether it is viable or not after fire in the hole has been called? >> that would be negative, appr. mr. dennis, should any civilian or law enforcement officer be allowed in close proximity viable or not once fire in the hole has been called? >> no. >> thank you. as you can see from the montage there were several law enforcement and civilians in the area. even one whether it's a plain clothed police offir looking at the robot while it was there.
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it seems to be based on what you're telling us that it's highly inappropriate and potentially a deadly. next i would like to discuss the failure to discover the devices on the morning of january 6 vice president elect harris arrived at the dnc through the garage entrance. prior to her arrival the secret building and its exterior. based on the records obtained, the secret service used two uniform division k-9 units and ten secret service agents to conduct the sweep. let me say before we roll the tape, we are showing all these videos during my time the beginning to save time later so others may have questions based off of these videos, so it's just not for this line of questioning. let's roll this tape at the security sweep.
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it is a picture of the building on the right for clarity of where the device is. at 9:28 a.m. a handler conducted a and at what point they allow the dog to inspect an area directly behind the device and as the handler begins to away it causes him to lose balance. let's look at that portion for
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clarity. at this point when he goes down and turns to the right, you can see his leg kick out a little bit. of the actual■w■ officer. what is your assessment of the effectiveness -- >> may i ask a question? i think we are probably about ten minutes into the five minutes. >> we are taking the additional time so we can save time later so we don't have to replay the video so it's go t additional t. what is your assessment of the sweeps in the video? >> it appears that handler and the team is doing an open sweep where the dog is in front of him and he is letting the dog dictate where to go. unfortunately the dog is out of
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the screen whenever the handler has his left arm andt and it could be one of two things. a change of behavior out of our view or by giving that extra lead and that is what happens, your foot goes up and hand goes up and you don't want to put unneeded pressure on the dog by pulling on the lead, depending how well-trained the dog is. tre more lead to because he's had a change in behavior. we can to see what that a change of behavior is and it looks like to leave that area. he could have some kind of change of behavior. an overt would be aq response. but that would be a changed
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behavior. i understand there is a wall and it's hard to determine how it is moving but he decided to leave and walk away. sment of the sweep of the vehicle. >> when wetart training depending on the experience of the dog we tend to put it on a pattern where the dog is out in front and it looks like has some kind of experience hitting the spots you need to hit. the dog turns away from it like it had no interest and then it go id you start at one corner and go all the way around and sometimes overlapped by a little bit. >> thank you. this will be the last video
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because there is also video being used for questio b the co. this is the controlled the robot arm is in the bottom left of the screen if you watch there. with this one quick question, mr. dennis if thelx device is successfully disrupted, what do you hope to see? >> in this case the galvanized pipe bomb you would have the tat
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was. it's usually what bomb technicians will do and you see the end cap somewhere in the ■flocationthy placed potentially.h/ anything else could also be laying there in the immediate area.■ç >> nothing unusual? okay, thank you. now ms. torres for fivees. >> before the clock begins, i have a question for you. given that you take 15 minutes■< between all of you you have 25, 30 minutes in addition to the 15, there's two of us we have ten minutes. are you going to allow for us to
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extend our time? >> the chairman has full discretion over the management of time and as i explained we want to make sure to get the videos front. i will be flexiblo reasonable time if needed we can do an additional round of questioning but we have so many other people and committees we want to be timely going forward. >>kathese videos that you have played are used to the minority has been the common subcommittee to not ovide a minoty information other than the time and at the meetings placed it's real unfortunate.
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i'm going to put this on you. at and upfront as to what exactly arerpose of the meeting and a second guessing our law enforcement officers, three years after an incident seems like a cheap shot. like spitting in their face after they gave up so much. so many of them had major injuries that were suffered under the violence of this angry mob unleashed on the capital. while the first video was played you said at the time was around 1:30 wn they discovered.
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i had to look back at my own personal record o■zf wt 1:30 that night or that afternoon and i can tell you that at 1:30, several buildings of the capital had already been entered, breached by this angry mob. so to say to the law enforcement community you should have been here instead of over there, you should have been over there instead of over there, we didn't have enough officers. we didn't have the officers that were present that were here with their own bravery to defend themselves. they had the equipment that it takes in order for them to handle the mob that was
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unleashed on them by the former president. thank you for your presence here. our colleagues in the minority have repeatedly asked the director and the fbi to testify publicly as to the status of the investigation into the■ pipe cos three years. is this policy, ishishe the yeaw enforcement professional? >> as far as theee years or mor. >> as far as giving public testimony to be an update of how the investigation is going. >> generally they are not discussed. it can be counterproductive not only to that invti investigatio.
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>> what do you mean counterproductive? >> certain techniques uertaken identify a suspect and if those types of techniques are divulged, they can change their behavior and destroy evidence, and then again that information is available for future -- >> so not only could it hurt the current investigation, but it could compromise any future investigations if you are having to deal with that same person,c? >> the same presenter type of crime. >> the same suspect. because they would change their ammo and it would make it that ? >> yes. and any action to cover their crime?or could be sitting here in the room with us, correct? >> their identity is currently unknown. it could be the perpetrator who planted the bombs could be watching us on tv?
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>> correct. how could revealing this information put this u.s. capital in danger in the future? >> specific information. >> investigative tactics and techniques are usually not is if one has been developed wouldn't destroy evidence or change the behavior that would enter those techniques less viable. >> some individuals including members of this institution havt the dnc and rnc and the fbi statements state both devices cn detonated as a result of serious injury or death. based on your■yeaviduals and goe unfounded allegations that the
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fbi lying about a particular investigation, does that post a challenge to the fbi? >> public perception■ is important. the men and women that are doing the work every day. >> why is that perception so important? relies on information and a good relationship with of the public and communities they serve. any kind of negative publicity is to be expected sometimes but you work through that to get to the logical conclusion.mpromises that could come forward and give us information?the public shouln any information would be accepted and followed through to its logical conclusion. >> thank you. and i yield back. >> the gentlelady yields.
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for clarification based on the ranking member's comments, we are not here to discuss the investigation of thebi. the minority and public over a week ago with a description of what we would be discussing which is not partisanin but trying to get to the bottom of what may have gone right, what may have gone wrong and how we can improve the security of members of both parties here and as a courtesy to the minority, the videos that we played here today weret review so it shouldn't have been a surprise. i now recognize the gentleman from virginia for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i would agree with the gentlelady if we didn't have enough officers that day it would create a number of plus we
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unprepared. as a capital police we are just unprepared for those numbers. that being said, you said in your testimony and i quote it is my understanding both of the functional and viable pipe bombs however it is unclear whether they would have gone off on their own had they not been rendered safe by the bomb squad. how do you form that opinion if it's unclear they would have gone off on their own? >> the viability and functionality of the bombs of the pipe bombs that were placed at the republican national committee and the democratic national committee, those statements come from our trained, capable bomb attacks that when they were presented with a picture of the device on scene, they didn't have the context of when they were planted, how long they had already been sitting there. they were looking at a picture of a pipe bomb that to them comprised of all the components.
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they didn't know what was >> what made you think it wouldn't go off? >> based on the experience -- >> that's all i need to know. i concerns, and i understand that there is a dilemma with manpower. lots of vehicles are passing here. the one at the headquarters was found at approximately 1:05 but if i understood the testimony correct, and tell me if i've got it wrong, the buildings they were not told to place until 1:30. in both your oral and written testimony you said 1:30 p.onnelr in place. there were people and we've already gone over the perimeter
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that wasn't but the vice president-elect of the united states is inside one of the buildings and there's a 25 minute delay before anybody says you might want to shelter 's not acceptable, is it? >> that's not accurate. >> tell me why it's not accurate. when the initial call came out, they found the pipe bomb and they immediately went up and alerted the agencies at t■h■ dnc which could serve in the metropolitan police department. then they moved over to do exactly what they were training to do which to establish -- >> why did the testimony say they were told to stay in place until 1:30 and the vice prestenng past to the pipe bomb that was viable according to -- >> that is correct and the timeframe between when we set up the incident command post into the shelter in place, there were teams not u.s. capital police
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telling the dnco evacuate as well. >> so there was cross hope one y would identify this individual, but wouldn't you agree that in light of the fact that the parameter was not secured because there were two reasons to secure the perimeter, first and foremost to protect the lives of people, and second, to preserve evidence isn't that also correct? >> yes. >> without having secured that perimeter, we will never know if there was any incriminating evidence that might have been ■4 in that perimeter because you've got pedestrians walking past the robots and numerous vehicles■í including law enforcement driving by where they are about to detonate in
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the vicinity. the crime evidence you can later use to link a suspect to the site? >> the device itself was intact at the time. it was placed in the evening hours on the fifth end is located on the sixth. >> are■n you sure? here's what a good criminal defense will say. to tell me if you don't think this sounds reasonable from the defense attorneyf standpoint. you identify the individual that placed what is believed to be the bomb hours ago, and h a search for the secret service and at the dog didn't light on anlo so it wasn't the device that was later determined to be the pipe bomb because it
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