things going over there? He said, there's big crowds, lots of people in line, but right now he wasn't seeing any concern with the folks that we had. So that was my initial take," Sund told the Select Committee.[120]
Throughout the morning, Robert Engel, the special agent in charge of the President's Secret Service detail, received updates from the event at the Ellipse. At 10:35 a.m., an update informed Engel that 20,000 attendees had been processed and outside of the magnetometers, but that there were "several thousand on the mall watching but not in line."[121] An hour later, Engel forwarded an update to White House Deputy Chief of Operations Ornato, informing him that 30,000 attendees had been processed.[122]
Acting Attorney General Rosen met with FBI leadership for a briefing that morning.[123] He remembered this briefing, unlike previous ones, as "more of a situational update," adding that the DOJ was "going to hope for the best, prepare for the worst."[124] At 10:43 a.m., Acting Deputy Attorney General Donoghue received an email from Matt Blue, Acting Chief of the Counterterrorism Section, stating "[t]here are no credible threats as of the 10:00 brief."[125] Twelve minutes later, Rosen spoke to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone via phone.[126] Acting Attorney General Rosen admits that "in hindsight" no one at the Department contemplated "how bad that afternoon turned out to be."[127] Nobody in the DOJ leadership could have predicted President Trump's actions that day.
The President's speech at the Ellipse began just before noon. David Torres,[128] head of the USSS's Protective Intelligence Division (PID), insisted that the Secret Service was not listening to the President's speech, however PID agents monitored the speech throughout.[129] At 12:20 p.m., Faron Paramore, assistant director of Strategic Intel & Information (SII), sent an email to USSS leadership that "POTUS just said that he is going up to the U.S. Capitol to 'watch' the vote" and asked whether this is true. Secret Service executive Kimberly Cheatle responded "[h]e said it, but not going, to our knowledge."[130] Minutes later, the USSS PIOC warned that "Mogul just mentioned in his speech that he would accompany the protesters to the Capitol," with a note that "DAD Torres requested this be sent for awareness."[131] At 1:14 p.m., the USSS Joint Operations Center (JOC) sent an email designating a response team to accompany the President in his march to the Capitol, "per [his] announcement" at the Ellipse. The JOC notes: "Multiple reports of armed individuals with various weapons and malicious intent. Be on your guard."[132]
At 12:24 p.m., while the President was speaking, the Vice President, with his USSS detail, departed the Vice President's Residence for the Capitol.[133] After being routed to the Senate side due to the protests, the Vice President's detail arrived at the Capitol at 12:38 p.m. and was inside the Senate Chamber at 12:54 p.m.[134]
