US warned of possible militia plot to attack Capitol on Thursday

Federal authorities on Wednesday warned that people associated with identified militia groups have been discussing plans for another attack on the US Capitol with the aim of removing Democratic politicians on or about 4 March.

The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the US Capitol police department has obtained intelligence pointing to a possible plot to “breach the Capitol by an identified militia group” on Thursday, the agency said on Wednesday.

The Capitol police statement added that it is working with local, state and federal agencies “to stop any threats to the Capitol” in Washington, almost two months after the deadly insurrection at the seat of the US Congress by supporters of Donald Trump on 6 January.

The police further stated: “We are taking the intelligence seriously.”

Thursday marks the date when some rightwing conspiracy theorists have claimed that the former president, Donald Trump, will be sworn in for a second term in office despite the fact that he lost the November presidential election and left the White House on 20 January just before Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th US president.

Officials at all levels have described the US election as the most secure in the nation’s history.

The attack on 6 January left five people dead on the day, including a police officer, hundreds injured and saw members of congress running for their lives. Two more police officers took their own lives just days after the insurrection.

Trump was impeached for a historic second time for inciting the attack with an incendiary speech outside the White House on the day, where he encouraged supporters to march on the Capitol, where the House and Senate were set to certify Biden’s victory.

The Capitol police statement noted that it had already made “significant security upgrades” at the Capitol.

It was unclear if these upgrades were done in response to this latest threat or whether they included measures already in place following the 6 January insurrection.

The FBI has warned of extremist online “chatter” about attacking the Capitol on 4 or 6 March.

Law enforcement officials at the Capitol were on Wednesday sending out notices to members of Congress notifying them of the detected threat.

Testifying in the Senate about the insurrection, Melissa Smislova, a senior official in intelligence and analysis at the DHS said that the department issued a joint warning with the FBI about midnight on Tuesday about the raised level of online plotting around a potential new attack.

However, the House internal security chief, the acting sergeant at arms issued a bulletin saying that the significance of 4 March as the “true” inauguration date for Trump among some groups had declined.

The theory has been boosted by the conspiracy group QAnon, which had previously predicted that Trump, not Biden, would be inaugurated on 20 January.

House security are no longer anticipating protests or violence from groups traveling to Washington on Thursday, the sergeant, Timothy Blodgen, reported.

Meanwhile, William Walker, the commanding general of the District of Columbia national guard, testifying at the same Senate committee hearing as Smislova, said it took army leaders more than three hours to approve a request for guard troops to be deployed to the Capitol on 6 January.

Walker accused the Pentagon of restricting the deployment of troop support to back up the police.

And former vice-president Mike Pence further fueled conspiracy theories in an opinion article that questioned “the integrity of the 2020 election”, citing “significant” and “troubling” voting irregularities, published by the conservative Daily Signal.