Internet skeptical Chris Miller claims Jan 6 panel threatened him to stay silent about Trump wanting to deploy troops

WASHINGTON, DC: Chris Miller, the former Acting Secretary of Defense under Donald Trump, claimed the January 6 committee threatened to "make his life hell" if he persisted in asserting that his former boss had approved the National Guard's deployment during the January 6 Capitol riot.

The former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center stated in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail that he grew "fearful" of the aggressive tactics used by the Democratic-led panel to try to prevent him from speaking publicly about an alternative perspective that wasn't consistent with their final findings.

Miller's shocking remarks came in following a report by Georgia GOP congressman Barry Loudermilk, which indicates that the committee concealed a transcript from a high-ranking White House official, in which he admitted to Vice Chair Liz Cheney and other staff members that Trump intended to send in troops.

What did Chris Miller reveal in his bombshell interview?

In November 2020, following the firing of Mark Esper over efforts to thwart Joe Biden's presidential election victory, Donald Trump appointed Chris Miller to lead the Pentagon.

Despite having only been employed for two months, he was thrown before the committee while they looked into what happened on the day the Electoral College ballots were certified.

Miller alleges the members pressured him and threatened to call him in for "hours" of additional testimony if he continued to appear on TV and defend the actions of the former president.

Miller claimed at the time that he lacked the "resources to continue to battle" the committee and that he was unwilling to answer further depositions in exchange for discussing his experiences with media outlets.

According to the former chief of the DOD, he and Trump national security official Kash Patel were featured in a Fox News host Sean Hannity's show on June 6, 2022, that appeared to "hit a nerve."

“The two of us were on [the Fox News show] and the next day my lawyer got a call from the Jan 6 staff director – I forgot exactly who it was – but basically saying, very legalistic: 'Well, if your client has additional information he wants to share, we'd be happy to have him re-interviewed,’'' Miller recounted.

He continued, “It was more that latent threat of: 'If you want to keep going on TV, we're gonna drag you in here again for additional hours of hearing testimony.' So that was the nature of that whole thing.”

“It was the latent threat of the government continuing to intrude into my life,” Miller remarked.

It remains uncertain whether anyone else who testified before the committee felt threatened, but Miller admitted that he was afraid that any mention of the events of that day to anyone could lead to another interview with the panel.

Consequently, he refrained from discussing his uneasy feelings about the committee with anyone else – until now.

“I didn't talk about it with anybody else because of the fear or the concern,” Miller explained.

He added, “I wasn't communicating with anybody, because I knew any interactions I had on it would result in me having to… acknowledge that I'd been in communications with other people. And then that just sort of opens up a whole can of worms with the investigators that I just didn't want to do.”

“It was much easier just to not be involved with anybody or talk to anybody about this stuff because it was going to cause conflict and difficulties with the investigating team,” Miller claimed, adding. “So I didn't talk to other people, quite simply.”

Chris Miller drew a direct correlation between Liz Cheney and the January 6 riot probe

Miller has stated that he believes former Rep Liz Cheney (R-Wyo) is the driving force behind the January 6 investigation.

According to him, the committee's vice chair was particularly concerned that his public appearances would contradict the notion that Trump was involved in the insurgency. This was a matter of optics that the committee was keen to maintain.

The former acting Secretary of Defense speculated, “I'm sure that Cheney was looking at the optics and was like these people are a serious threat to my narrative that she tried to establish.”

During a meeting held in the Oval Office on January 3rd, 2021, then-President Trump verbally authorized the mobilization of the National Guard for deployment to Washington, DC in response to threats of violence and protests related to the 2020 presidential election results.

Present at the meeting were Kash Patel and Chris Miller, both of whom have testified before the January 6th panel regarding the events of that day.

Despite their sworn testimonies, which included recalling the aforementioned meeting, the Select Committee has discredited their statements, citing their perceived political alignment with the former POTUS.

Miller stated that he "definitely interpreted" that continuing to appear on TV would "make my life hell."

“Now, you know, they'll say, 'No, that wasn't it at all. We just wanted to make sure that we understood all the nuance and complexity.' But I definitely interpreted it as… don't fight city hall type thing,” Miller argued.

The Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Administration Committee investigated the events of January 6, 2021, and recently released the transcribed interview with Tony Ornato, a long-serving Secret Service official who was responsible for former President Donald Trump's security detail during the event.

Ornato's testimony corroborated the testimonies of Kash and Miller. The Subcommittee's Chairman, Rep Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga), made the transcript of Ornato's interview public in November 2022.

Previously, Ornato's testimony was not adequately highlighted in the committee's final report. Patel, in an interview with the Daily Mail, claimed that the transcript of Ornato's interview was not made public because it contradicted the committee's insurrection claim.

On January 3, 2021, during a meeting in the Oval Office, Trump suggested that Defense officials had the authority to approve the mobilization and deployment of 10,000 National Guard troops during the Capitol riot.

Miller and Patel were present at the meeting, along with Mark Meadows, the then-White House Chief of Staff, and Mark Milley, the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Rep Cheney, according to a person familiar with Rep Loudermilk's review, played an "abnormally active role" in the investigation, as per Miller's claims.

“She attended almost every single transcribed interview and her questions almost always focused on framing Donald Trump,” they claimed.

It's uncommon for a member of Congress to take on such a significant role during witness interviews. Typically, lawyers and councils conduct the interviews and brief members afterward.

Regarding the former GOP congresswoman focusing on her position on the panel, Miller stated, “[Cheney] didn't have a job actually by that point, right? She'd been removed from all her committee assignments. This is the only thing she did.”

“But it was pretty clear she was very active and involved in the running of the thing,” he continued. “I have no idea about the other guy [Chairman Bennie Thompson]. I mean, I have no idea what his role was other than, I saw him on TV. I never saw him doing the day-to-day stuff.”

Miller asserted that he is aware that Cheney and other members of the panel will attempt to minimize his claims that they coerced him to remain silent about his story.

“I think by now, as we look at the totality of Liz Cheney's hearings, we realize it was political theater,” the former DOD chief remarked, adding. “And I actually was naive enough to think that it was going to be a serious investigation.”

Internet reacts to Chris Miller's explosive interview surrounding January 6 riot 

People on X shared their immediate reactions and opinions following the shocking claims by Chris Miller who revealed that the Democrat-led panel wanted him to stay silent about then President Donald Trump authorizing the deployment of the National Guard during the January 6 Capitol riot.

One X user remarked, "J6 Committee dissolved Jan 2023. While Jack Smith prosecutes Trump for J6, Miller kept quiet. Crazy…"

Another user asked, "What were you threatened by Chris Miller? What could they possibly do to you to keep you quiet?"

Another user said, "I want GOP Congress to subpoena Liz Chaney about J6!!"

One user wrote, ""Threatened him"?? Color me skeptical. If that's the case he really needs to grow a pair. He needs to assertively, in public, stand up for the truth. We had a Coup d'état in November 2020, on Jan 6th 2021, and through lawfare ever since. He has a responsibility to stand-up."

Another X user quipped, "Liz scared a former green beret?"

Finally, this user tweeted, "I would think a defense secretary would have more courage - defend his commander-in-chief and his country."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.