INTERVIEW OF: CHRISTOPHER CHARLES MILLER
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Q I want to turn your attention to the evening of January 3rd when you 23 attended a meeting at the Oval Office. Who, according to DOD timeline, it’s yourself as 24 well as General Milley. Is that right? 25 A Yes. He was there, yes.
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What was the purpose for this meeting? Very significant national security threat directed at us by a foreign power, 5 and I’ll just leave it at that. All right. Mr. Miller, I think the mike is getting a little -96 6 7 Q A There is significant national security threat directed at the United States by a 8 foreign power. That’s all I can say at this time.
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Q Understood. And it’s fair to say that the meeting was not — the purpose of 10 the meeting was not to discuss the joint session event on January 6th? 11 12 A Q It was not.
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As I noted at the end on the way out of the meeting with the President, he 14 asked, in passing, about preparations. And I think Milley was there, too.
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A I can’t remember if it was that meeting or later, but the President, I sensed, 2 he didn’t say it was going to be a million people, but I sensed that he expected a much 3 more greater number than 35,000, but we didn’t — it wasn’t, like, oh, there’s going to be a 4 million people there. That wasn’t — but it seemed that there was expectation there’d be 5 a much larger number of people show up.
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Q Before we get into a little bit more detail about this, I want to make sure 14 we’re clear. There was the January 3rd meeting with yourself at the Oval Office, but 15 there’s also the January 5th call that you spoke about as well in your House testimony. 16 So I don’t want to conflate the two, but the January 3rd meeting, is that where the crowd 17 expectation conversation occurred? 18 A I’m sorry. I cannot — I have the two confused as well and I know it came 19 up, and I don’t recall whether it was that close out as we’re walking out or whether it was 20 a brief phone call on the 5th, but somewhere in one of those — so I think we just stick 21 with what I said Marg Stan (ph), which was couple months after this, which I think is on 22 the third. We didn’t talk about size. It was more what was the Department of 23 Defense’s plan for support to law enforcement.
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Q Okay. We’ll get to the January 5th call then in a moment, but what was 25 your response on the — January 3rd you said you were leaving the Oval Office. How long 98 1 was that conversation? 2 A 30 seconds, a minute.
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A I just said that we had a request for support from Mayor Bowser that we 6 would fulfill. And I think, in my previous statement, the President said something like 7 give them what they need. I can’t remember particularly.
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Q From your statement you said: He then commented that, quote, they were 12 going to need 10,000 troops the following day. 13 What was your understanding of when the President said “they,” who he was 14 referring to? 15 16 A Q Law enforcement, public security, public safety. The call — the call lasted fewer than 30 seconds, and I did not respond 17 substantively, and there was no elaboration. 18 First, the 10,000 troops, did you take that as a request for you or an order to you 19 to deploy 10,000 troops? 20 A No, absolutely not. I interpreted it as a bit of presidential banter or 21 President Trump banter that you all are familiar with, and in no way, shape, or form did I 22 interpret that as an order or direction.
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domestic law enforcement entities had stated earlier that they could 3 handle much — you know, a million people.
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To be crystal clear, there was no direct order from President 24 Trump to put 10,000 troops to be on the ready for January 6th, correct? 25 A No. Yeah. That’s correct. There was no direct — there was no order 1 from the President.
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Q That’s correct, yes. And can the President do that on his own to the Capitol without any type 22 of — what are the authorities in terms of what he can deploy? 23 A I believe he could — I don’t know for certain, but I believe he could direct, as 24 the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, the deployment of forces if 25 he ordered it.
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What I’m saying is that it appears that McCarthy interpreted the guidance 8 and the order at 3:04 differently than I relayed it, which I think is completely acceptable 9 based on the chaos that’s going on and not to be pedantic, but I will.