Capitol Police Chief: Records Prove Immediate Calls For Military Backup On Jan. 6

Acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman, testifying remotely through a video link, told a House committee that her agency head had requested military backup about a half-dozen times in the first hour after the Capitol complex was breached on Jan. 6, the day of the insurrection.

Pittman based her assessment on phone records her agency obtained for then-Chief Steven Sund showing he reached out to the Capitol's top security officials starting shortly before 1 p.m. in the first of six calls requesting the National Guard to respond.

"Chief Sund spoke to both sergeants-at-arms to request National Guard support," Pittman told a House panel on Thursday in her first testimony in a public congressional hearing on the siege.

Pittman's and Sund's accounts now directly contradict one by the top House security chief at the time, Paul Irving, who told a Senate panel this week that he didn't get an early call for military aid.