Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced criticism after her recent post on X accusing President Donald Trump of delaying National Guard deployment during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Pelosi wrote that Trump “delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake.”
She also labeled his current activation of the Guard as a distraction from his “incompetent mishandling” of tariffs, healthcare, education and immigration.
In response, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund publicly disputed Pelosi’s narrative surrounding the Guard’s deployment.
Sund accused Pelosi of blocking multiple requests for Guard support before and during the attack.
“Ma’am, it is long past time to be honest with the American people,” Sund wrote.
He detailed that on Jan. 3, he requested National Guard assistance, but the House Sergeant at Arms denied the request.
Sund explained, “Under federal law (2 U.S.C. §1970), I was prohibited from calling them in without specific approval.”
Sund added that Carol Corbin at the Pentagon offered Guard assistance that same day, but he was forced to decline due to legal restrictions.
On Jan. 6, during the Capitol attack, Sund’s repeated pleas for help were denied by the Sergeant at Arms for more than 70 minutes while approval was sought.
“When I needed assistance, it was denied,” Sund emphasized. “Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops.”
This is not the first time Sund has confronted the congresswoman over her actions.
In June, he publicly accused Pelosi of shifting blame onto Trump despite her office’s control over approval channels via the House Sergeant at Arms, according to the Washington Examiner.
He said he made 11 urgent calls for Guard assistance on January 6 starting at 12:58 p.m., but authorization took 71 minutes. He also noted his January 3 requests were “denied each time.”
Sund explained that federal law prevented him from independently requesting federal aid without approval from the Capitol Police Board, which included the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms—who reported to Pelosi and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In sworn testimony from 2023, Sund criticized the Pentagon’s role, saying that after approval was granted to call in the Guard, he repeatedly pleaded with officials to send help.
He said Army Lt. Gen. Piatt denied assistance due to concerns about the “optics of the National Guard on Capitol Hill,” despite the visible presence of the D.C. National Guard nearby.
This ongoing dispute has resurfaced amid controversy surrounding President Trump’s recent activation of the D.C. National Guard as part of a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department.
The decision has drawn sharp criticism from Democratic leaders in Washington and Maryland and has reopened fierce debates over who should be held responsible for the failures on Jan. 6.
Sund referenced video footage from Pelosi’s daughter, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, which appears to show Pelosi taking responsibility for the shortage of Guard troops during the evacuation.
Nevertheless, Pelosi continues to place sole blame on Trump, stating, “On January 6, with violence against the Constitution, against the Congress and against the United States Capitol, we begged the President of the United States to send in the National Guard. He would not do it… That day, he didn’t do it.”
As the political battle continues, questions over accountability and the National Guard’s role remain at the forefront of the debate surrounding Jan. 6.
