Senate Calls for Former Capitol Police Chief and Sergeants at Arms to Testify on Capitol Insurrection

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Last updated on February 18th, 2021 at 01:46 am

The Senate has called for former Senate Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper Michael Stenger, former House Sergeant at Arms Paul D. Irving, former Chief of U.S. Capitol Police Steven Sund, and Robert Contee, chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, to testify on the events of January 6, the day a group of former President Donald Trump‘s supporters breached the Capitol in a failed bid to overturn the election results.

Stenger, Irving, and Sund resigned in the wake of the attack amid criticism of the response to the violent insurrection, particularly their delay in calling in the National Guard to quell the insurrection. The hearing has been set for next week, on February 23. It will be overseen by the Senate’s Rules Committee and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, both of which are leading a probe into the attack.

“The security failures that led to the breach endangered not just the Vice President and the Congress, but the peaceful, democratic transfer of power itself. The American people deserve a complete accounting of those failures,” lawmakers wrote in a letter accompanying their request last week.

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Meanwhile, the U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee, the union that represents thousands of U.S. Capitol Police officers, announced that the overwhelming majority of Capitol Police officers––92%––voted that they had no confidence in Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman. They also provided votes of no confidence on other members of the department.

“Capitol Police offers have delivered an overwhelming vote of No Confidence in the senior leadership of the U.S. Capitol Police,” the union said in a news release. “The Executive Board of the Capitol Police Union called for rank-and-file members to consider a vote of no confidence late last week following the senior leadership’s mishandling of the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. The board took this unprecedented step after reviewing details of the events on, and leading up to, January 6th and the subsequent deaths of 6 people, and injuries to approximately 140 Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers.”

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.