In a lengthy post on X published on Thursday, former U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Lieutenant Tarik Johnson contended that the events that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 were “not an insurrection.” Johnson was reacting to a Vivek Ramaswamy town hall event in Iowa that was shown on CNN, in which the GOP presidential hopeful expressed his opinion that some of the events of January 6 may have been an “inside job.”
According to Johnson, his pleas for help were ignored by Capitol Police Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman, and frontline officers, including Johnson, were kept in the dark about warnings that a major protest was expected that day.
Ramaswamy had commented: “If you had told me that January 6 was in any way an inside job the subject of government entrapment, I would have told you that was crazy talk, fringe conspiracy theory nonsense.”
But the Republican hopeful has since changed that opinion:
I can tell you now having gone somewhat deep in this: it’s not. I mean, the reality is this: we do have a government — first of all, we have to acknowledge that has lied to us systematically over the last several years about the origin of COVID-19. About the Hunter Biden laptop that we were told was false by 51 CIA experts and otherwise before we now know that it was true. You can go straight down the list of Trump-Russia, disinformation, collusion, hoax, all of it. Now we come to January 6. The reality is we know that there were federal law enforcement agents in that field. We don’t know how many I think it’s shameful.
CNN host Abby Phillip cut Ramaswamy off, saying that there was no evidence for the candidate’s allegations.
But Ramaswamy charged ahead.
“I know that the establishment doesn’t approve of this message,” he said, eliciting applause from the audience.
“So why before Congress, when pressed on what the number was, [the FBI] didn’t say there were none, they just couldn’t say how many there were?” Ramaswamy asked. “We’ve seen multiple informants suggesting that there were.”
Johnson, a 22-year veteran of the Capitol Police who was later suspended from the force after sharing his version of events with former Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy (D), then provided some of the evidence Phillip was looking for in the form of eyewitness testimony.
“Vivek Ramaswamy got a lot right in this interview. I’ve been saying publicly for a year that J6 was not an insurrection but not many people would listen,” Johnson posted on X. “Ironically so, no one would benefit more than I if J6 was an insurrection as I (Tarik Johnson) was the Commander that ordered and led the evacuations of the Senate and the House during the J6 breach.”
Johnson has been saying publicly for a long time that the events of January 6, 2021 were not as they’ve been presented by the media. Despite his leadership role and eyewitness account, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack never interviewed him.
“My voice is one of the first ones you hear on the audio transmission, so I did expect to get an interview sometime, but it didn’t happen,” Johnson said on Tucker Carlson Tonight in March. “I guess the focus was on Donald Trump.”
According to Johnson, information was withheld from frontline officers, which led to an out-of-control situation. “We should have been better prepared that day, and we could have been better prepared that day if the information was disseminated like it was supposed to be,” he told Carlson.
According to Johnson, Assistant Chief Pittman was of no help in dealing with the chaotic events.
“Pittman flat out ignored me so I was forced to forge ahead with the evacuations without obtaining approval from her,” he wrote on X.
After speaking to Leahy, Johnson was disciplined by the Capitol Police Department.
“Approximately an hour after I got off the phone with the senator I was contacted by the USCP internal affairs section and informed I was suspended,” Johnson explained. “The suspension lasted for 17 months and I was under a USCP gag order not to speak about the events of January 6, 2021 to the media until I separated from the Department. I was also required to remain in my house Monday through Friday from the hours of 8am to 4pm and unable to step off my property without notifying the USCP for fear of being disciplined up to and including termination during those 17 months.”
In many ways, it appears that Johnson was another prisoner of the January 6 charade.
Johnson offered Ramaswamy assistance regarding the January 6 issue: “If presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy would like more FACTS to disrupt the insurrection narrative, I will inbox his designated representative my personal phone number.”
