A former U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant declared in a recent social media post that “EVERY demonstrator and EVERY police officer there on J6 was set-up.” According to former Capitol Police Lt. Tarik “T.K.” Johnson, “every officer was totally blindsided.”
Johnson, who was suspended three days after the Capitol riot for wearing a Trump hat, revealed on Sunday that a “VERY big name” had reached out to him for an interview. In the past year, the former lieutenant has become increasingly vocal about what he witnessed on January 6, 2021.
In his first broadcast interview after the riot, Johnson accused former Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman of ignoring his repeated calls for direction as the protest spun out of control. Johnson told NPR in January of 2023 that Pittman was the only commander he heard over the radio, “so I heard her, so I said something to the effect that, ‘the Capitol is breached, we have hundreds of demonstrators in the building, what do you want us to do? We need some direction.’ I didn’t hear anything so I was thinking ‘Oh Jesus Christ, we’re going to die here.'”
The former lieutenant told NPR he wore the MAGA hat because he thought it “could be a de-escalation tool and a way to protect myself, since people would be less likely to attack me if I was wearing a MAGA hat.”
He explained how, with the help of two Oath Keepers, he was able to reach some overrun officers at the top of the Capitol steps and guide them to safety. After video of his interactions with the Oath Keepers was posted online, he was accused of “sympathizing with the attackers” and received death threats.
Johnson told NPR he was deeply hurt that he was not given a Congressional Gold Medal like his former colleagues.
“It stung me pretty badly when I was told I do not qualify for the medal they awarded the officers for their work on and everything they went through on January 6,” he said.
Last March, Tucker Carlson interviewed Johnson for his former Fox News show. He told Carlson that he was forced to take the initiative and evacuate the Senate because Pittman wouldn’t answer his calls.
“I was requesting permission to evacuate the senate side, the senate chambers, because I had a clear line of sight to get them out the senate door, and I didn’t get permission,” he explained. “The dispatcher called a couple times to see if I could get permission. No response.”
Johnson continued: “The person that I thought was going to authorize the evacuation didn’t do it. I wanted to get those members of congress out as quickly as I could. That’s why I initiated those evacuations.”
He told Carlson that it was shameful that Pittman had been praised by Nancy Pelosi and now had an administrative policing position at the University of California in Berkeley.
🚨BREAKING: In an interview with Tucker Carlson, former Capitol Police Lieutenant who was suspended for wearing MAGA hat says then assistant Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman who was later promoted by Nancy Pelosi kept vital info from Police on January 6th pic.twitter.com/LE6t41qEAa
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 8, 2023
A former high-ranking USCP official with knowledge of the USCP’s response to the Jan. 6 riot corroborated Johnson’s account in a whistleblower letter sent to congressional leaders in October of 2021.
The whistleblower, who requested anonymity for privacy reasons and left the force months after the attack, accused Pittman and another senior leader of mishandling intelligence and failing to respond properly during the riot. Â The former USPC official sent the scathing 16-page letter to the top members of both parties in the House and Senate.
His missive makes scorching allegations against Sean Gallagher, the Capitol Police’s acting chief of uniformed operations, and Yogananda Pittman, its assistant chief of police for protective and intelligence operations — who also served as its former acting chief.
The whistleblower accuses Gallagher and Pittman of deliberately choosing not to help officers under attack on Jan. 6 and alleges that Pittman lied to Congress about an intelligence report Capitol Police received before that day’s riot. After a lengthy career in the department, the whistleblower was a senior official on duty on Jan. 6.
The whistleblower’s criticism went beyond Capitol Police leaders to Congress. Without naming specific lawmakers, his letter accuses congressional leaders of having “purposefully failed” to tell the truth about the department’s failures.
In recent days, Johnson has been speaking out even more about his experience on X, formerly known as Twitter, and has called for all the officers and demonstrators “to call a truce and focus on Pittman’s failures.”
“USCP Chief J. Thomas Manger is protecting Pittman like a lion protects her cubs even after all the death and destruction Pittman’s actions caused on J6,” Johnson wrote. “Manger is effectively spitting in the eyes of everyone there that day to include the families of Officer Brian Sicknick and Ashli Babbitt and the sad part is he won’t even provide a handkerchief. Shame on you sir but I will still pray that God has mercy on your soul.”
Johnson, who says he voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, wrote that he was suspended after coming forward as a whistleblower to Senator Patrick Leahy (D- Vt.).
On Saturday, January 9, 2021, I called then US Senator Patrick Leahy in an attempt to be a whistleblower for things I knew that occurred on J6. I knew NOT to call the IG so I figured going to Congress was my best option. Within an hour after I made the call to him, Pittman somehow found out and suspended me that same day. I was required to remain in my house (effectively house arrest) between the hours of 8am to 4pm Monday thru Friday. I was also allowed to leave the house on holidays. I was not permitted to leave my house without notifying the Capitol Police and they had to have a phone number where I could be reached. This began on January 9, 2021, and ended June 26, 2022. I also returned to a two rank demotion and a 15-day unpaid suspension. This is what USCP Whistleblowers get.
“And I haven’t even told everything yet,” the former officer said. “They did worse.”
Johnson said there would be more Capitol police whistleblowers but there are no whistleblower protections for USCP officers. “That’s why they can’t come forward without ending their careers,” he wrote on X.
There are no whistleblower protection laws for USCP officers so they can’t speak without destroying their own families. The difficult part is if they did come out they are not likely to get much help. If they start a GiveSendGo like a fellow officer did for me so that I could make ends meet people will call them grifters. Would I change anything I did? No. It was a moral issue for me and I could not remain quiet. I’m sad that my family has to suffer financially because of what God lead me to do but I believe God will make us whole. If not in this life then He will in the next. Pittman is now an extremely rich woman but I feel sorry for her as she is morally bankrupted. I believe deep down she is hurting from all the death and destruction she caused on J6. I ask that everyone continue to pray for her as I do. God bless.
He said that he has additional “information from current and former USCP employees” but “broadcasting that info publicly would lead the Department directly to them and there would be no one to protect them.”
“I have information on who Pittman’s cover-up co-conspirators are and they are still on the Department,” Johnson wrote on X. “They will hurt the officers that are current. This situation is way worse than you know. Sometimes I wish I didn’t know. And like it or not it does lead to the destruction of Donald Trump and right now the only way to stop it is by stopping Chief J. Thomas Manger.”
Johnson expressed optimism that the truth about Jan6 will prevail if enough people are able to hear about it.
“This MISSION I’m on will finally start to pick up traction if the interview happens and WE will get the millions of viewers we need,” he wrote on X. “Message to Pittman and Manger: JUSTICE IS COMING.”