Pentagon Agrees to Send Hundreds of Guardsmen to DC for Protest Response

UPDATE AT 5:11 p.m. Eastern

A press release from the National Guard Bureau published Wednesday afternoon identified the states from which troops will be drawn for the capital mission, including 100 from the Vermont National Guard, 100 from New Jersey, and about 80 from West Virginia.

The troops will deploy to Washington, D.C., later this week.

ORIGINAL STORY

The Pentagon announced that it has signed off on a request for up to 700 National Guard troops to be activated in response to potential protests in the nation's capital tied to President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address next week.

"The Secretary of Defense has approved the provision of 400 District of Columbia National Guard (DCNG) personnel and 50 vehicles to support the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia at designated traffic posts," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby announced Wednesday in a statement.

Kirby added that "the Secretary of Defense also approved the provision of up to 300 National Guard personnel from neighboring states to support the United States Capitol Police."

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It is not clear how many of the approved troops have been mobilized so far. Inquiries to the D.C. National Guard were not immediately returned. Meanwhile, Capt. Ben Hughes, a spokesman for the Maryland Guard, told Military.com in an email that "at present, no members of the Maryland National Guard have been mobilized."

"We are aware of the situation and are conducting prudent planning in the event the Maryland National Guard is needed," he added.

U.S. Capitol Police and other D.C. agencies fear that protesters -- mainly truck drivers -- will descend on the city around Biden's State of the Union speech March 1. Organizers of the self-described "People's Convoy" are modeling the action after the Canadian "Freedom Convoy," a weeks-long protest by truckers that opposed all vaccine mandates in that country.

According to the protest's website, the group demands that "the declaration of national emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic be lifted immediately."

The website says the plan is for the convoy to depart from a small town north of Los Angeles on Feb. 23 and head for Arizona. It will then go to Texas and Oklahoma and eventually the D.C. area by March 5. The site also notes that "the People's Convoy will abide by agreements with local authorities, and terminate in the vicinity of the DC area, but will NOT be going into DC proper."

The group's website claims it has raised more than $400,000 despite forgoing traditional crowdfunding websites such as GoFundMe and GiveSendGo.

GoFundMe removed support from the Canadian protest after it received "evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity."

After that, supporters of the protesters moved to GiveSendGo, which describes itself as the "#1 Free Christian Crowdfunding Site." But the site was hacked, and all the donor data for the campaign was publicly released, revealing that much of the financing came from donors in the United States.

Initial reports from journalists following some of the American truckers have suggested that turnout will not be nearly as robust as it was in Canada.

Law enforcement organizations, like the U.S. Capitol Police, said in a press release last week that they are "aware of plans for a series of truck convoys arriving in Washington, DC around the time of the State of the Union" and that the request for the activation of the National Guard stems from those plans.

Kirby said that National Guard troops "will be prepared to assist Metropolitan Police officers at traffic posts as soon as operationally and logistically feasible through March 7, 2022."

The Pentagon said that the National Guard personnel will be in "Title 32 duty status," meaning that they will be under federal, not state, control and be paid by the federal government.

Kirby's statement also noted that soldiers "will not be issued firearms and they will not engage in the surveillance of U.S. or foreign persons, although they are authorized to report any observed criminal activity to appropriate law enforcement personnel."

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

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