President Trump Authorized, But Did Not Order, National Guard for Duty on Jan. 6, Former Aide Says

Under the law, a president cannot order the National Guard for domestic deployment; local officials must request it

A claim by the House Jan. 6 Select Committee vice-chair that President Donald Trump did not order the use of National Guard troops in the District of Columbia on Jan. 6 is true because that would have been a violation of the law, former Department of Defense aide Kash Patel says.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) told Bret Baier of Fox News that Trump “never issued any order to deploy the National Guard to protect the Capitol.”

Patel said that Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops for use in D.C. or elsewhere on Jan. 6, but that those troops were later rejected by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the U.S. Capitol Police.

Under the law, the president cannot order the deployment of the military for use inside the United States, Patel said. At the time of the Jan. 6 unrest, Patel was chief of staff for Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller.

“She knows the truth—45 authorized National Guard days before Jan. 6, and Pelosi and Bowser rejected it,” Patel told The Epoch Times. “Cheney knows it’s unconstitutional for any president to ever order the military to deploy domestically. He may only authorize their use, then there must be a request.

In the new documentary, “The Real Story of Jan. 6,” Kash Patel, former chief of staff for the U.S. secretary of defense, said National Guard troops were rejected by Capitol Police and the D.C. mayor. (Screenshot/EpochTV) Read MoreThe Real Story of January 6 | Documentary

“By her own quote, she has cleared Trump of the very thing she has accused him of from Day 1—an insurrection,” Patel said. “So yes, Trump never made that illegal order. He followed the law.”

Authorized 20,000