THE BIG STORY

Capitol security leaders gave conflicting stories and pointed blame elsewhere for failures during the insurrection

Three former heads of Capitol Hill security appeared at a Senate hearing that was meant to answer how a mob was able to breach the Capitol. The hearing ended up raising more questions than answers.

The three former Capitol Hill security chiefs — who all resigned under pressure after the riots — blamed the FBI, the Trump administration, and each other for the Jan. 6 riots. They said the attack was unpredictable and unforeseeable, despite Trump supporters openly planning the attack online in the days and weeks leading up to the day.

The FBI sent an intelligence report the day before the attack, warning of potential violence at the Capitol. Former Capitol Police chief Steven Sund said it never made it to his desk.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson, who refused to condemn Trump’s lies about the election, said that left-wing “provocateurs” and “fake” Trump supporters sparked the violence at the Capitol riots.

WE'RE SUING THE CAPITOL POLICE FOR RECORDS

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the events leading up to the January 6th riot at the US capitol and the role this police force played in the events of that day. While the Capitol Police are not subject to FOIA, we’re using another little known tool in our toolbox to go after their records: the common law right of access.

Although most cases involving the common law right of access to government documents involve records in the custody of the judicial branch, the D.C. Circuit has made clear that the right applies to all three branches of the federal government and is not limited to records similar to court documents.

As our lawsuit states, "How could such a well-funded police agency charged with protecting the seat of American democracy have been so unprepared for what transpired on January 6, 2021?" Our pursuit of records about the internal operations of this secretive police agency aims to answer some of those questions.

Help us on our quest for government transparency by contributing to our legal fund here.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

A man who was charged with leading the mob that chased Officer Eugene Goodman in the Capitol will stay in jail

The footage of Officer Goodman being chased through the Capitol, running up the stairs while pushing back an advancing mob, is seared into people’s memories. It is one of the most intense visuals of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Douglas Jensen, an Iowa man who was charged with leading that mob, will stay in jail as his case goes forward. His lawyer told a judge that he wouldn’t fight the government’s effort to keep him behind bars.

Jensen is facing multiple felony charges, including that he obstructed Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election; assaulted, resisted, or interfered with police; and carried a “dangerous or deadly weapon” when he illegally went into the Capitol — in his case, a knife with a 3-inch blade.

Images that prosecutors included in court papers show Douglas Jensen confronting Officer Eugene Goodman. US Department of Justice

SNAPSHOTS

Tiger Words is “awake, responsive, and recovering” from surgery after a serious car crash. Woods suffered serious injuries to both his legs as a result of the crash and required surgery to fit metal rods, screws and pins to his shinbone and calfbone, according to the Chief Medical Officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

A South Korean clothing company apologized after people noticed it had edited a model’s skin color to be darker. The story surfaced after a customer noticed a photo of a model with a much darker skin tone than she'd previously had. When the customer asked the company about it, they claimed the model is “blacker than black.”

Vanessa Bryant addressed Meek Mill’s “insensitive and disrespectful” lyrics about Kobe Bryant’s death. The rapper found himself at the center of some controversy over the lyrics of a leaked song. Kobe's wife Vanessa Bryant addressed the controversy herself, posting a statement calling out the rapper for being “extremely insensitive and disrespectful.”

A HOME FOR HATE

India has its own alternative to Twitter. It’s filled with hate.

Earlier this month, India’s government was in a fight with Twitter, after the social media company defied a legal order to block the accounts of journalists critical of India’s Hindu nationalist government.

In response, India’s IT ministry threatened to send Twitter officials to jail. But that wasn’t the only tool in their arsenal. Government officials also started promoting Koo, a little-known social media network. They pushed it as a nationalist alternative, free from American influence.

Since then, millions of people, most of them supporters of the ruling party, followed the government’s lead. The Twitter clone became an instant hit, installed by more than 2 million people over 10 days.

But as Pranav Dixit reports, the bigger problem is that on Koo, Hindu supremacism runs wild, and hate speech against Muslims, India’s largest minority, flows freely, driven by some of the government’s most hardcore supporters.

UNFORTUNATE TIMING

This woman wins for accidentally getting the most hilariously unfortunate pandemic-era tattoo

People on TikTok were sharing “the dumbest tattoo you’ve ever gotten,” and there’s wide consensus that 25-year-old Leah Holland won the challenge.

This certainly wasn’t her intention. When she got her tattoo on March 4, 2020, she was finally making good on something she wanted to do for a couple of years. Holland’s friend told her “you courageously and radically refuse to wear a mask.” What a lovely thing to say! A nice idea for a tattoo!

But, uh, during a pandemic...the sentiment hits different. Holland said she spent the whole summer wearing cardigans so people wouldn’t think she’s an anti-masker.

Courtesy of Leah Holland

Take a few minutes to reflect on how you can actively care for your mental health today,

Elamin

Correction: Yesterday's newsletter incorrectly stated that in January, US pandemic deaths eclipsed the number of people who died in World War II. It should have said that pandemic deaths eclipsed the US military deaths in World War II. I apologize for the error.