Michael Flynn’s brother reveals he was involved in Capitol riot response after Army denied it, report says

Apparent U-turn by Pentagon officials could pose questions about police response

Army officials reportedly denied that the brother of Michael Flynn, the disgraced former national security adviser, was at a meeting that discussed deploying the National Guard to the Capitol amid the 6 January riot.  

The Pentagon, Capitol Police and Washington DC officials were also on the call, which did deploy troops to defend the US Capitol from Donald Trump’s supporters, who had already started to besiege the building.

According to the Washington Post, Army officials on the telephone call were reluctant to deploy troops to the Capitol because their presence would have created a negative “visual” of a heavy military response.

Following the phone call, the troops were deployed and arrived at around three hours after the call, despite pleas for more National Guard troops to be deployed prior to the ‘Stop the Steal’ protest that preceded the assault on Congress.

Charles Flynn, the deputy chief of staff for operations for the US Army, told the Post on Wednesday that he had been on the call – days after the Pentagon denied his participation. It was not clear why they had done so.

"[I] entered the room after the call began and departed prior to the call ending as I believed a decision was imminent," he told the Post, and said he was working to implement the deployment of troops to the Capitol once the call had ended.

That decision was later criticised as having been too slow, with one Washington DC official describing the response on the day as “long” and “tortured”, CNN reported.

There was no indication that Lt. Gen Flynn shares the same views as his brother, Mr Flynn, who promoted the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally in the weeks before the assault on the Capitol.

As ABC News reported, Mr Flynn told the former president’s supporters that they needed "to be fearless as Americans”, and that they had reached a "crucible moment" and "there has to be sacrifice".

Those comments, and his brother’s role in the Army’s response to the riots, are likely to come under further scrutiny amid criticism of relaxed policing on the day, and which the Pentagon has denied.

One Capitol Police officer and four civilians were left dead following the attack.