'We had the wrong plan' -Former House security chief

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Paul Irving, the House's former sergeant-at-arms instead said that intelligence had not warranted having troops at the Capitol on Jan. 6, when supporters of the then-president attacked the building, leaving five dead.

Irving said that two days before the event he had discussed the possible use of 125 National Guard troops with then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger.

"'Optics' as portrayed in the media played no role in my decisions about security," Irving told two Senate panels opening a probe into security failures before and during the riot. "We did discuss whether the intelligence warranted having troops at the Capitol. The collective judgment at that time was no - the intelligence did not warrant that."

Sund said that rioters coordinated the unprecedented attack. “These criminals came prepared for war,” he said, adding that no police are trained for such an insurgent assault.

Senators in the Homeland Security Committee and the Committee on Rules and Administration want to find out where the breakdowns in planning and response occurred that allowed the violence to unfold in and around the citadel of American democracy.

The riots shook the world, threatened a peaceful transition of power and endangered the lives of U.S. lawmakers and Trump's vice president, Mike Pence.

The Capitol building, which hosts the 535 members of Congress, has long been open to visitors and guests in a way that the White House has not been. Passersby could walk almost to the building's steps and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic it was still open to tourists, who had to enter through a special visitors' entrance.

U.S. media reports said that congressional leaders and security officials ahead of the Jan. 6 rally in support of Trump's false claim that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud had not wanted to see the same militarized presence around the Capitol that was stationed about the White House during summer anti-racism protests.