By Tom Ozimek
As former president Donald Trump arrived in Washington on Thursday to face an indictment on charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, parts of a never-aired interview with former Capitol police chief Steven Sund were released, in which Mr. Sund called the events of that day a “cover up.”
As Mr. Trump was being arraigned on his third indictment amid his campaign to beat President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, The National Pulse released exclusively obtained fragments of an interview that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson carried out with Mr. Sund.
“Everything appears to be a cover up,” the decorated former police chief said in reference to events around the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
“If I was allowed to do my job as the chief, we wouldn’t be here, this didn’t have to happen,” Mr. Sund said, according to The National Pulse.
‘Hiding the Intelligence’?
Much like he did in his book “Courage Under Fire,” Mr. Sund partly blamed Ms. Pelosi and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley for failing to provide him and his officers with intelligence that suggested problems on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 and the potential for the situation to spiral out of control.
“Like I said, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but when you look at the information and intelligence they had, the military had, it’s all watered down,” Mr. Sund said. “I’m not getting intelligence, I’m denied any support from National Guard in advance. I’m denied National Guard while we’re under attack, for 71 minutes.”
Mr. Carlson replied by saying that “it sounds like they were hiding the intelligence.”
Mr. Sund then said: “Could there possibly be actually … they kind of wanted something to happen? It’s not a far stretch to begin to think that. It’s sad when you start putting everything together and thinking about the way this played out … What was their end goal?”
There has been much speculation that the events of Jan. 6 were intentionally provoked by federal agents working undercover to make Mr. Trump’s supporters look bad and undermine his efforts to challenge the election.
According to Mr. Sund, Mr. Carlson was fired from Fox on the day he was planning to air parts of the buried interview.
“On the day he was fired, @TuckerCarlson was planning to air parts of our one-hour interview and showcase my book. It was an interview he was excited about and said it ‘made the hair on my arm stand up.’ But Fox canned both Tucker and the interview. Coincidence?” Mr. Sund wrote in a post on social media on May 5.
Team Trump Seeks Release of Buried Interview
A report from Puck News indicates that Mr. Trump’s legal team has issued a subpoena to Fox News for the unaired interview of Mr. Sund, with the network reportedly denying that request.
An item that could be of interest to Mr. Trump’s lawyers relates to a fragment of Mr. Carlson’s interview with Mr. Sund that the former Fox News host referred to in a recent interview with British comedian Russell Brand.
“I never thought there was a false flag or anything like that. I’m not a conspiracist by temperament … And then I interviewed the chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund—in an interview that was never aired on Fox, by the way. I was fired before it could air,” Mr. Carlson said.
“He was the chief of the Capitol Police on Jan. 6 and he said, ‘Oh yeah, the crowd was filled with federal agents.’ He would know, of course, because he was in charge of security at the site. So the more time that has passed, now it has been two-and-a-half years, it becomes really obvious that core claims they made about Jan. 6 were lies,” Mr. Carlson said.
As Mr. Trump faces criminal charges over his role in the Jan. 6 incident, it’s unsurprising his legal team would be interested obtaining footage of the interview, in which Mr. Sund purportedly says that there were federal agents among the crowd.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the Pentagon, Fox News, and Mr. Trump’s spokesperson with requests for comment on Mr. Sund’s remarks, but did not receive a reply by publication.
Ms. Pelosi earlier denied any responsibility for the Jan. 6 incident while the Pentagon released a detailed timeline that highlights its active engagement in supporting security efforts that day.
The FBI has denied that it had any undercover agents in the crown on Jan. 6 who instigated violence.
‘Ludicrous’
In his book, Mr. Sund also laid some of the blame for the Jan. 6 riot at the feet of the FBI.
During a recent hearing in Congress, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) asked FBI director Christopher Wray whether the agency had any prior notice or reason to believe that the Jan. 6 incident at the Capitol would unfold as violently as it did.
“We did not, to my knowledge at least, have prior knowledge of an attempt at violent overthrow of and breach of the Capitol building itself,” Mr. Wray replied.
“Certainly we were concerned about and put out a number of products, intelligence products to partners and others, warning of the potential for violence more generally on that day,” he added.
Mr. Cohen then asked about reports of secret government agents “helping encourage this crime so as to make the president look bad.”
Mr. Wray denied that there were any FBI-linked instigators in the crowd that day.
“This notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous and is a disservice to our brave, hardworking, and dedicated men and women,” Mr. Wray said.
Elsewhere in Washington, Mr. Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to four felony charges in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.
