Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who served in the final months of Donald Trump's administration, said he felt "threatened" by the Democrat-led Jan. 6 select committee over his assertion that the former president did indeed authorize deployment of the National Guard during the Capitol Hill riots.
Miller told the Daily Mail that Trump verbally authorized him to mobilize the National Guard during a meeting on Jan. 3, 2021. However, that assertion — and his sworn testimony to the committee — contradicted the narrative that the Jan. 6 panel was pushing, Miller said.
Because of that, Miller told the outlet, he "definitely interpreted" the panel would "make my life hell" if he kept going on TV to press the truth and defend Trump's actions.
Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chair of the Committee on House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight, said last week that the Jan. 6 panel suppressed testimony from a former White House deputy chief of staff who testified that Trump was "willing to ask" for 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol.
At issue is whether Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser turned down the offer of the National Guard, opting instead for unarmed guards. The select committee concluded that Trump didn't order the deployment of troops before or during the riots.
Miller, who was on the job for two months at the time of the riots, told the Daily Mail that one particular interview he gave in June 2022 "hit a nerve" with the committee.
"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 told the outlet.
"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," he added.
Further, Miller said he went so far as to not discuss his feelings about the committee so as not to open "up a whole can of worms with the investigators."
"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," he told the outlet.
Loudermilk asserted that the Jan. 6 committee suppressed testimony from Anthony Ornato that proved Trump's intent on the National Guard.
"Mr. Ornato's testimony proves what Mr. [Mark] Meadows has said all along, President Trump did in fact offer 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. Capitol, which was turned down," Loudermilk said in a statement.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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