'This was a coup': Internet fumes as DC National Guard whistleblower exposes army leaders' disregard for Trump's Jan 6 orders

WASHINGTON, DC: Colonel Earl Matthews, the principal legal counsel for the DC National Guard, has recently stepped forward as a whistleblower to the House subcommittee investigating the inquiry of the January 6 Select Committee.

According to Matthews, senior military leadership disregarded former President Donald Trump's authority as Commander-in-Chief on January 6, 2021.

Two weeks after the public hearing, Matthews offered additional insights into the events he witnessed on that day in an interview with DailyMail.

What did Colonel Matthews reveal about the events of January 6?

Colonel Earl Matthews alleges that then-Army Secretary, Ryan McCarthy, and then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, were conspiring to reject any order that Donald Trump would give them at the time as they “unreasonably” presumed that the then-President would unlawfully use the DC National Guard (DCNG) to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. 

Although there have been notable concerns regarding the communication breakdown between the military and the administration regarding the deployment timeline of DCNG to the Capitol, Matthews claims that senior military leaders were only concerned with deflecting the blame from themselves and redirecting it towards then-President Donald Trump. 

Matthews suggests that the Select Committee on the January 6 Attack was eager to embrace this narrative and attribute the entire incident to the MAGA strongman.

Furthermore, Matthews contends that senior military leadership had effectively undermined the president's authority as commander-in-chief by pre-planning to countermand orders because they disliked the visuals of uniformed soldiers at the Capitol building.

Col Matthews said, “I think a very plausible argument can be made that through no fault of his own, President Trump's command authority over both the DC National Guard and the US Army itself had been surreptitiously curtailed by the senior leadership of the Army on January 6, 2021.”

“Army leadership had unreasonably anticipated an 'unlawful order' from the President, an order that the president had no plans to issue, and were preemptively seeking to curtail his discretion to issue such an order,” he added.

Colonel Matthews, who served as the Staff Judge Advocate of the DC National Guard (DCNG) during the infamous Capitol Hill riot, was reportedly present during an important phone call on the afternoon of January 6, 2021. The call involved McCarthy, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, and other senior leadership figures.

During the conversation, US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund requested urgent assistance from the DCNG to assist law enforcement officers in effectively responding to the riot.

DCNG Commander Maj Gen William Walker had already prepared his troops for deployment.

At a congressional hearing, Sund revealed that Army Staff Director Walter Piatt and Chief of Staff for Operations Charles Flynn were also part of the discussion. However, Flynn claimed under oath that he was not on the call.

Matthews claimed during the interview with the aforementioned outlet that Flynn and Piatt seemed "almost disinterested" in Sund's concerns and showed no urgency in getting the National Guard to the US Capitol to curb the rioters.

“Flynn and Piatt displayed what I would characterize as a nonchalant attitude during the roughly 25-minute call,” the Colonel alleged.

Additionally, he asserted that the two Army officials “didn't like the optics of the Guard coming to the Capitol,” despite Piatt's denial to Congress in his testimony that he ever made reference to “optics.”

“Both Piatt and Flynn were obsessively focused on what they considered the bad optics of military personnel at the Capitol during the certification of the election,” Matthews continued.

“They both stated that they believed that what was transpiring at the Capitol was most appropriately handled by civilian law enforcement personnel,” the chief legal advisor to DCNG claimed.

“Despite the fact the capabilities and resources of the US Capitol Police and MPD were quickly being overwhelmed and the National Guard typically assists civilian police authorities in such circumstances,” he explained.

“Piatt and Flynn wanted the DC National Guard to find locations around the city where it could relieve MPD officers performing traffic or other duties in order to allow those civilian police officers to deploy to the Capitol,” he stated.

The January 6 Committee was composed of seven Democrats and two former Republican lawmakers, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

In the final report released by the select committee, it has been confirmed that then-POTUS Donald Trump did approve the deployment of the National Guard, despite previous claims that he had not given the necessary authorizations, resulting in the delay lasting for over three hours.

“Former President Trump's eagerness to engage the US military to play a visible role in addressing domestic unrest during the late spring and summer of 2020 does appear to have prompted senior military leadership to take precautions, in preparing for the joint session against the possibility that the DC Guard might be ordered to deploy for an improper use,” the final report reads.

Matthews has revealed that Piatt, Flynn, and other military leaders ignored or completely disregarded the sitting president's authority.

It's contradictory to hold Trump responsible for the delay while simultaneously alleging that he was using the DCNG to prevent certification of the 2020 election results.

Trump's then-acting Defense Secretary, Christopher Miller, confirmed last month that the ex-president authorized the National Guard during an Oval Office meeting a few days before January 6, 2021.

He also claimed that the January 6 Committee threatened to prevent him from speaking publicly about his account of the events surrounding the Capitol riot.

Internet fumes as Matthews revealed Army leaders disregarded Trump's orders during Capitol riot

One X user remarked, "Not only does NOBODY have the Authority to strip ANYONE from a Constitutional Position and their Duties that they were Elected to Serve, those who THINK they have such Authority must be Arrested, Prosecuted and Executed for Treason! It's Really That Simple."

Another user said, "That is a military coup It does not surprise me that that Gen Milley led it."

Another user wrote, "This was a coup. That is treason. When will they be held accountable!!! This needs to end!"

One X user asked, "Wouldn’t this be considered an offense worthy of a court-martial?"

Another user claimed, "We already knew that but there’s more confirmation. It was a coup. But not by J6’rs… by the DC swamp."

Finally, this user tweeted, "Funny, He was still POTUS until the 20th and after!"

 

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.