A comprehensive report by Just Security offers a chilling theory on why there was an hours-long delay in getting National Guard to the U.S. Capitol during the attack on Jan. 6. Mounting evidence—supplied by several senior defense officials—indicate the delay may have occurred because of a significant and shared fear among top brass that former President Donald Trump would use a freshly deployed Guard to invoke the Insurrection Act and attempt to hold onto power indefinitely. Just Security co-editor in chief and former special counsel for the Defense Department Ryan Goodman and editor of Tech Policy Press and contributor to Just Security Justin Hendrix posited this well-sourced theory in their Dec. 21 piece alongside some of the more commonly held beliefs regarding the delay. Those include the notion that authorities weren’t keen on the “optics” of having U.S. troops installed at the Capitol and that officials had considerable misgivings about the deployment overall. In November, the Office of the Inspector General for the Defense Department published a 153-page report reviewing the agency’s role, responsibilities, and actions to prepare for and respond to the Jan. 6 assault and its aftermath. Read more