Capitol Hill
Capitol HillISTOCK

Government documents obtained this week by a watchdog group detail that the US Secret Service was keeping tabs on one or more neo-Nazi groups planning to use violent tactics to occupy the US Capitol in the run-up to the January 6 riots.

The documents, obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), showed that the agency failed to take action to prevent violence from occurring on the 6th.

Threats to the Capitol that the Secret Service appeared to ignore included information that the Vorherrschaft Division, a neo-Nazi group, was organizing to put “boots on the ground and voices loud enough to be heard for miles.”

The document also detailed multiple tips from citizens who had information concerning extremists who planned to attend or organize their followers to occupy the Capitol on January 6.

“In addition to the neo-Nazi threat, the Secret Service received multiple tips from a ‘concerned citizen’ who claimed that two people, including a subject who previously made threats against Joe Biden, were flying to DC to attend Trump’s rally and ‘incite violence,’ and that another individual would be driving to DC with ‘ballistic helmets, armored gloves and vests, rifles and suppressors,’” CREW said in the report.

The watchdog group added that besides plans by extremist groups to occupy the Capitol, “we now know the agency was tracking neo-Nazis and secretive individuals intending to cause violence on January 6th.”