ACROSS AMERICA — Joe Biden will become the 46th U.S. president Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, the same building insurrectionists stormed two weeks ago in a riot that left five people dead, spawned an investigation that could reach members of Congress and led to a historic second impeachment of outgoing President Donald Trump.
The irony of the theme Biden is expected to focus on in his inaugural speech — a call for unity and healing — is not lost in a city that has been turned into a fortress in response to fears the Jan. 6 insurrection was a reconnaissance mission ahead of the inauguration.
The first conspiracy charge in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation was filed Tuesday against Thomas Edward Caldwell, a 66-year-old Clarksville, Virginia, man authorities said is a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right, anti-government militia.
Also, 12 of the 25,000 U.S. Army National Guard troops deployed to secure the capital city have been removed from the detail after they were found to have ties to far-right fringe groups, The Associated Press reported, citing Army and intelligence officials.Subscribe
Early Tuesday morning, the FBI sent a list of names to the National Guard Bureau who were identified as having ties to fringe right-wing groups or had posted extremist views.
The FBI privately warned law enforcement officials Monday that far-right extremists who are adherents to the QAnon conspiracy group discussed posing as National Guard soldiers to infiltrate the massive security detail, according to intelligence documents obtained by The Washington Post. The documents described potential imposters as “lone wolves” who had reviewed, downloaded and shared maps of vulnerable spots in the capital city.
Specific threats to disrupt the inauguration of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in a manner similar to the Jan. 6 insurrection were not detected, the report said.
In his most severe and public rebuke of the defeated president to date, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday the mob that stormed the Capitol was “fed lies” by Trump and others attempting to overturn Democrat Biden’s election.
“They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like,” McConnell said.
The FBI has been monitoring an “extensive mount of concerning online chatter” about threats to the inauguration, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said last week, though acknowledging the challenge of “trying to distinguish what’s aspirational versus what’s intentional.”
The FBI has said it could arrest hundreds of people in the four-hour insurrection that temporarily halted the certification of Biden’s Electoral College win. Rioters face a ream of charges, from trespassing to assaults on police officers to theft of national security and defense information to felony murder.
Also among the latest to come under suspicion is Riley June Williams, a resident of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who the FBI said may have stolen a laptop computer belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Capitol breach.
The military routinely reviews service members for extremist connections, but Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The AP on Sunday the FBI is vetting them amid worries of an insider attack on the inauguration.
The massive undertaking underscores the extraordinary security precautions prompted by the attack on the Capitol and subsequent threats.
Fears of violent clashes with armed protesters did not materialize Sunday, though small groups of demonstrators, some with long guns, peacefully protested outside heavily fortified statehouses around the country.
McCarthy told The AP he warned National Guard commanders to be on the lookout for problems within their ranks. A couple of current active-duty National Guard members have been arrested in the Capitol riot that led to Trump’s historic second impeachment.
Service members from across the military were at the Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, but it’s not known how many may have participated in the breach at the Capitol, McCarthy said.
“We’re continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation,” McCarthy told The AP in an interview after he and other military leaders went through an exhaustive, three-hour security drill in preparation for Wednesday’s inauguration. He said guard members are also getting training on how to identify potential insider threats.
The exhaustive review is slated to be completed by Wednesday.
“The question is, is that all of them? Are there others?” said McCarthy. “We need to be conscious of it, and we need to put all the mechanisms in place to thoroughly vet these men and women who would support any operations like this.”
The Department of Defense on Monday announced it is deploying an additional 2,750 active-duty personnel to the Capitol before the Wednesday event. Of those, some 2,000 will serve in “ceremonial support” roles.
The remaining 750 specialize in handling chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological and explosive threats and offering trauma-response medical support.
The Capitol was briefly evacuated on Monday after a fire broke out at a nearby homeless encampment, putting a halt to a rehearsal for Wednesday’s inauguration. The fire was extinguished quickly, and no injuries were reported, according to D.C. fire and EMS.
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