An internal report is released showing that Capitol Police warned that Congress could be assaulted

The terrible event of the assault on the Capitol carried out on 6 January by fanatical supporters of the outgoing US president, Donald Trump, which left five dead, 14 policemen injured and 52 arrested, was halted in advance because the police at the Washington parliamentary headquarters warned in advance that Congress could be attacked.

An internal intelligence report from the Capitol Police warned three days before the assault that Congress could be the target of the followers of outgoing President Donald Trump in view of the disillusionment with the election results that brought Joe Biden to the presidency of the United States. 

The historic and tragic episode that tarnished the history of democracy and US politics could be neutralised, something that is very much in the balance, particularly if we count the tragic result of five people killed, 14 policemen injured and 52 people arrested. 

"The supporters of the current president regard 6 January 2021 as the last chance to annul the results of the presidential elections," according to the internal intelligence document of the Washington Capitol Police, some of the extracts of which were published in The Washington Post.

"Unlike previous post-election protests, the targets of Trump supporters are not necessarily the opposition demonstrators as they were before, but Congress itself is the target on the 6th," the report said. 

January 6 was the day the U.S. congressional chambers were set to confirm the election victory of Democratic candidate Joe Biden over Republican candidate Donald Trump, in view of the inauguration of the winner on January 20. The vice-president of the government, Mike Pence, was in charge of conducting the sessions to confirm Biden as the new president of the American giant, but on the eve of the day tempers began to heat up following Donald Trump's statements regarding possible electoral fraud that would prevent him from being re-elected president, something that had been ruled out and no longer seemed likely to prosper at any level. Trump himself even pressured Pence to activate a parliamentary mechanism to invalidate the electoral process that gave Biden the victory, something that was ruled out by the vice-president, who recognised the victory of the Democratic candidate. 

After Trump's harangues came the fatal incident of the assault on the Capitol and the first failure of the Republican president's own executive to react in order to provide sufficient security forces to stop the attack on the Capitol. Once the seriousness of the events was confirmed, enough troops were mobilised to put an end to the assault, which the Capitol Police themselves had to deal with in the first instance, as they were overwhelmed by the influx of thousands and thousands of Trump supporters. 

Already last Tuesday, The Washington Post revealed that an internal report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had warned a day before the assault that a group of extremists were preparing to launch a "war" in Washington and commit violence against Congress.

The information contradicts statements by the head of the FBI's Washington office, Steven D'Antuono, who told reporters last week that the agency had "no indication" that anything was planned for January 6 beyond protests by Trump supporters.

The FBI office in nearby Norfolk, Virginia, had warned, in a report approved for internal publication on January 5, of plans by extremists who had shared a map of the Capitol tunnels and mentioned specific threats against the complex.

"A thread published on the internet mentions specific calls to violence that include this: 'Be prepared to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors kicking open and blood being spilled from its BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers," according to the document, obtained by The Washington Post. The acronym BLM is a reference to the anti-racism activists of Black Lives Matter, while Pantifa is a derogatory allusion to the leftist Anti-Fa movement, whose members sometimes stand up to right-wing extremists who are Trump supporters.

Meanwhile, on Friday the US capital was shielded to provide the necessary protection in view of Joe Biden's inauguration as president of the United States following the transfer of power from Donald Trump. The National Guard even had to enter the Capitol building to establish a security zone in the event of a possible violent upsurge, taking into account the usual security measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.