A high-ranking D.C. National Guard official called two Army generals “absolute and unmitigated liars” in a memo accusing them of deceiving Congress and whitewashing their failure to adequately respond to the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The searing accusations were made by Col. Earl Matthews, who held high-level positions at both the Pentagon and the National Security Council during the Trump administration. On January 6th, he was the top lawyer to the commander of the D.C. National Guard.
In a 36-page memo sent to the House committee probing the Capitol attack – and obtained by POLITICO – Matthews accuses Gen. Charles Flynn and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt of covering up their delayed response to the riot. At the time of the Capitol assault, Flynn served as deputy chief of staff for operations. He is the brother of Michael Flynn, the disgraced general and Trump diehard. Piatt has been the director of Army staff since May 2019.
The memo also contends that the Pentagon’s inspector general helped Flynn and Piatt evade responsibility. From POLITICO:
Matthews’ memo levels major accusations: that Flynn and Piatt lied to Congress about their response to pleas for the D.C. Guard to quickly be deployed on Jan. 6; that the Pentagon inspector general’s November report on Army leadership’s response to the attack was “replete with factual inaccuracies”; and that the Army has created its own closely held revisionist document about the Capitol riot that’s “worthy of the best Stalinist or North Korea propagandist.”
Matthews’ memo appears to be motivated by a desire to defend his boss at the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. William Walker, who was accused of dragging his feet while rioters overran the Capitol.
“Every leader in the D.C. Guard wanted to respond and knew they could respond to the riot at the seat of government,” Matthews writes, noting that “the Dome of the U.S. Capitol is literally on the uniform of every D.C. Guardsman.” But Matthews alleges that Pentagon brass were worried about optics and told the Guard to stand down.
But when they testified before Congress, Flynn and Piatt said the reason it took so long for the Guard to respond – they didn’t appear at the Capitol until hours after the attack began – is because they were poorly equipped and needed assistance.
Flynn told lawmakers, that a “team of over 40 officers and non-commissioned officers immediately worked to recall the 154 D.C. National Guard personnel from their current missions, reorganize them, re-equip them, and begin to redeploy them to the Capitol.”
Matthews says that explanation “constituted the willful deception of Congress.”
“It is not just imprecision, it is lying,” he added.
Matthews explained that Guardsmen “were already on duty, were trained in civil disturbance response, already had area familiarization with Washington, DC, were properly kitted and were delayed only because of inaction and inertia at the Pentagon.”
When reached by POLITICO for comment, Matthews added “Our Army has never failed us and did not do so on January 6, 2021. However, occasionally some of our Army leaders have failed us and they did so on January 6th. Then they lied about it and tried to cover it up. They tried to smear a good man and to erase history.”
Matthews also contends that an ensuing report from the Pentagon Inspector General relied too heavily on “a narrative formed and developed by” Piatt and his allies and therefore “lacked accuracy and precision.”
“The danger is that if this report, with its glaring errors and wholesale adoption of the Army company line, is accorded the deference typically afforded inspector general investigations, the report will become part of the historical record and a false narrative will have been as adopted fact,” writes Matthews.
Matthews also writes that Piatt commissioned a secret history of January 6th that presents the Army’s view of events. “The end product, a revisionist tract worthy of the best Stalinist or North Korea propagandist, was close hold,” Matthews says, meaning the document was not for public consumption.
“The judgment of history is depends on who writes it. With respect to the Army on January 6, Piatt was determined to be that author. The Army Staff sought to change that narrative and to create an alternate history which would be the Army’s official recollection of events,” Matthews asserts.
POLITICO adds:
Flynn, now the commanding general of the U.S. Army Pacific, and Piatt didn’t respond to messages. Army spokesperson Mike Brady said in a statement that the service’s “actions on January 6th have been well-documented and reported on, and Gen. Flynn and Lt. Gen. Piatt have been open, honest and thorough in their sworn testimony with Congress and DOD investigators.”