Posted on 12/06/21
| News Source: The Hill
A former D.C. National Guard official is accusing two army generals of lying about the military’s response to the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Col. Earl Matthews, who at the time was the top attorney for then-D.C. National Guard commander Maj. Gen. William Walker, wrote a memo to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack that was obtained by Politico.
In the memo, Matthews called Gen. Charles Flynn and Lt. General Walter Piatt, director of Army staff, “absolute and unmitigated liars” for their recollections of the Capitol riot.
Matthews said the men lied in their testimonies to Congress about how they responded to pleas for the D.C. Guard to be deployed on Jan. 6; what they told the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General in a report released last month; and that the Army has a document about the riot that is “worthy of the best Stalinist or North Korea propagandist,” Politico reported.
Army spokesman Mike Brady said in a statement Monday it stands by "all testimony and facts provided to date, and vigorously reject any allegations to the contrary."
Asked about the memo, Matthews told Politico that the Army “has never failed us and did not do so on January 6, 2021.”
“However, occasionally some of our Army leaders have failed us and they did so on January 6th,” Matthews continued. “Then they lied about it and tried to cover it up. They tried to smear a good man and to erase history.
The memo comes weeks after Walker, who is now the House sergeant-at-arms, demanded the Inspector General’s report to be retracted because it contradicted his account of when he was told to send troops to the Capitol.