Nancy Pelosi just got a very public “fact check” from the man who was in charge of Capitol security on January 6 — and it’s not a good look for the former House Speaker.

The California Democrat unloaded on President Donald Trump Monday after he announced a sweeping federal crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., taking direct control of the Metropolitan Police Department and activating the D.C. National Guard to patrol the streets.

“Donald Trump delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake,” Pelosi fumed. “Now, he’s activating the D.C. Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, health care, education and immigration — just to name a few blunders.”

It didn’t take long for former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund — who resigned after the Jan. 6 riot — to hit back, and hard.

“Ma’am, it is long past time to be honest with the American people,” Sund said in a scathing statement. He recounted how on January 3, 2021, just three days before the riot, he formally requested National Guard support. That request, he says, was shot down by Pelosi’s own Sergeant at Arms.

“Under federal law (2 U.S.C. §1970), I was prohibited from calling them in without specific approval,” Sund explained. “That same day, Carol Corbin at the Pentagon offered National Guard support, but I was forced to decline because I lacked the legal authority.”

When January 6 arrived and chaos erupted, Sund said he begged again for the Guard — and was stalled for over an hour. “While the Capitol was under attack and despite my repeated calls, your Sergeant at Arms again denied my urgent requests for over 70 agonizing minutes, ‘running it up the chain’ for your approval,” Sund wrote.

He then accused Pelosi of hypocrisy: “When I needed assistance, it was denied. Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops.”

Pelosi’s own daughter showed the Speaker on Jan. 6 telling aides she wanted Trump to come to the Capitol so she could “punch him out” and “go to jail… happy.”

The remarks were caught on camera for an HBO documentary and aired by CNN. In the clip, Pelosi’s staff told her the Secret Service had dissuaded Trump from coming due to security concerns, but Pelosi replied, “I hope he comes. This is my moment. I’ve been waiting for this.”

It is still a mystery why she wasn’t “waiting” to authorize the National Guard to secure the Capitol through the House Sergeant at Arms, as former Chief Sund highlights.

Trump on Monday called his D.C. crime crackdown “liberation day” for the capital, vowing to rid the city of violent gangs, roving mobs, and “drugged-out maniacs.” The move gives the president full control of the MPD for 30 days under the Home Rule Act, and he warned that New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles could be next.

“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals… and we’re not going to take it anymore,” Trump declared at the White House. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Guard troops from D.C. and other states will be deployed within days as “force multipliers” for local and federal officers.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, calling the takeover “unsettling and unprecedented,” said she would nonetheless comply, adding, “Everybody should follow the law, the police and the community.”

It is odd that Mayor Bowser doesn’t find it “unsettling” that she failed to secure the Capitol ahead of January 6, despite the repeated warnings. Bowser addressed a letter to acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy and acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller prior to the January 6 riot.

“To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway,” she wrote in the letter.

The irony wasn’t lost on political observers: Trump is now deploying the very D.C. Guard he has been accused of withholding on Jan. 6 — and the former Capitol Police Chief is now on record saying it wasn’t him who blocked them at all.

Sund’s remarks revive a bitter political fight over who bears responsibility for the Guard delay that day. Democrats have long blamed Trump personally, suggesting he refused to send reinforcements as the riot unfolded. Trump and his allies counter that security planning for the Capitol fell under congressional leadership — meaning Pelosi’s office was at the center of the decision-making process.

In addition, it is a documented fact that Trump instructed the Pentagon to secure the capitol, ahead of expected election objections, and that included a pre-authorization for as many as 10,000 National Guard troops.

With Trump once again in the Oval Office and now exercising emergency control over the capital’s streets, the battle over the truth about January 6 is front-page politics all over again. And judging by Sund’s blunt words, he’s not letting Pelosi rewrite the record to fit her political narratives.

Acting AG Blanche Fires Back at Obama’s DOJ Criticism

Posted July 21, 2026

Former President Barack Obama sharply criticized the Trump administration this week over what he described as growing political influence inside the United States Department of Justice, prompting an aggressive response from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defending both the administration’s prosecutions and President Donald Trump’s authority over the executive branch.

The escalating public dispute comes as the Justice Department faces mounting scrutiny over a series of criminal investigations and indictments involving several longtime Trump critics and political adversaries, including former FBI Director James Comey.

Obama raised the issue during an interview with Stephen Colbert on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that aired Monday night.

“The White House shouldn’t be able to direct the attorney general to go around prosecuting whoever,” Obama said during the interview. “The idea is that the attorney general is the people’s lawyer. It’s not the president’s consigliere.”

Obama suggested the principle of DOJ independence may ultimately need to be codified into law by Congress, arguing that the justice system risks becoming politicized if presidents are perceived as directly targeting political opponents through federal prosecutions.

The comments immediately triggered pushback from the Trump administration.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson accused Obama of hypocrisy, arguing that his administration played a central role in the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

“Barack Hussein Obama is the king of weaponization,” Jackson said in a statement, referencing declassified documents related to the FBI’s Russia probe.

But the administration’s most extensive response came Wednesday from Blanche during an interview with CBS News in Phoenix.

Blanche forcefully rejected accusations that the DOJ is engaged in political retaliation and defended the president’s constitutional authority over the executive branch.

“Article Two says, ‘the executive power shall be vested in the President of the United States of America,’” Blanche said while holding a pocket copy of the Constitution during the interview. “It does not say that the Attorney General stands off to the side.”

Blanche emphasized that the attorney general serves within the executive branch and argued that presidents are fully entitled to direct priorities involving law enforcement, immigration, drugs, and national security.

“To the extent that President Trump calls me and says that he thinks we have a problem in this country, whether it’s the scourge of drugs, illegal immigration, every American wants him to do that,” Blanche said. “And he should.”

The acting attorney general also dismissed accusations that the DOJ is pursuing politically motivated cases against Trump critics.

“We are absolutely doing nothing but what we should be doing at the Department of Justice,” Blanche said. “I wake up with a very clean conscience every morning.”

The public clash comes amid multiple high-profile investigations involving Trump adversaries.

Most notably, Comey was recently indicted after prosecutors alleged a 2025 Instagram post featuring seashells arranged to form the numbers “86 47” constituted a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Prosecutors argue “86” is commonly understood slang meaning “to eliminate” or “get rid of.”

Blanche defended the case, arguing threats against the president must be treated seriously given recent assassination attempts and escalating political extremism.

Last year, Trump publicly urged then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue prosecutions against Comey, James, and Sen. Adam Schiff, writing on social media that “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED.”

Blanche declined to discuss private conversations with Trump when asked whether the president personally directed prosecutions.

“But rest assured,” Blanche said, “he has much better, bigger and important things to do than to worry about me doing my job.”

Blanche also turned Democrats’ criticism back against them by pointing to the multiple criminal prosecutions Trump himself faced before returning to office, including cases brought by state prosecutors in New York and Georgia as well as federal investigations overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

“So I welcome criticism. Let’s go,” Blanche said. “But if you’re sitting in a glass house, you ought not throw stones.”