prepared for something that was not peaceful.
I think the purpose of this statement was to try to calm things rather than inflame them. And we wanted to make it clear to people that, if you're going to come to D.C. and protest, that's all fine, and everyone's got a First Amendment right to do that, and that First Amendment right will be protected. But, if people are going to come in and engage in acts of violence and property destruction, there would be consequences.
So I think the point of drafting this statement was to make that clear to everyone, that there would be consequences if there was criminal conduct in the Capitol.
Q We talked a little about bit about Mayor Bowser's request for the D.C. National Guard. Exhibit 42 is the letter directed to DOJ as well as DOD, essentially, and I am going to quote the last line here.
"To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway."
And this was sent January—it looks like January 5th at 2:55.
Did this impact DOJ's preparation or posture going into the 6th in any manner?
A Not really. It made it clear to us that the Mayor didn't want our Federal assistance or involvement. But the reality was we had already prepared.
We certainly weren't going to be sending people home. We had our own independent responsibility and authority. And we were going to continue our plans to have our people in reserve in case they were needed by our partner.
So it didn't really impact what we were doing.
Q So before we start with the events of January 6th, going into that day, did DOJ have points of contacts with Capitol Police, Park Police, MPD, or was it all coordinated through the SIOC?
