Agent told the president to go to the White House after his speech ended.
When then-President Donald Trump finished his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, he wanted to go to the U.S. Capitol.
But a Secret Service agent blocked him from going, according to a newly disclosed account.
“The president wanted to go to the Capitol,” the Secret Service agent who was driving the vehicle, told a U.S. House of Representatives panel.
President Trump and Robert Engel, his lead Secret Service agent, entered the SUV around 1:10 p.m. after President Trump concluded his speech, which was delivered on the Ellipse.
“He asked Bob Engel if we could go to the Capitol and why couldn’t we go to the Capitol and was insistent on going to the Capitol,” the driver testified, adding later that the president “was pushing pretty hard to go.”
“Mr. Engel’s response was essentially to tell him that we didn’t have any people at the Capitol, we didn’t have a plan in place, and that we needed to essentially go back to the White House and assess what our options were and wait till we can get a plan in place before we went down there,” the driver added.
President Trump responded by saying he felt it would be fine because he was not concerned about the people at the Capitol, describing them as being his supporters, according to the driver, although the driver could not recall specifically what words the president used.
“Mr. Engel consistently had the same response, that we didn’t have a plan in place, we didn’t have people at the Capitol, and that we needed to go back to the White House and reassess,” the driver said, adding later that whether the crowd at the Capitol was comprised of supporters of President Trump “was immaterial.”
President Trump did not say anything like, “I’m the president, I’ll decide where I get to go or where I’m going,” the driver said, responding to a question from the panel.
The driver took President Trump and Mr. Engel to the White House, which is 1.2 miles from the Ellipse. By 1:25 p.m., President Trump was told about violence at the Capitol, according to a White House employee.
After arriving at the White House, the driver communicated what transpired to other agents and said they should stand by as a decision was made as to whether the president would at some point be taken to the Capitol.
The agents remained with the presidential vehicles until they were told they would not be going to the Capitol, according to the driver. The communication came within 15 minutes after Mr. Engel met with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows or Meadows’s deputy, the driver said. “My understanding was that … a decision came out of that meeting,” he said.
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