Newsmax Quietly Edits An Article To Debunk Right-Wing Capitol Riot Narrative

A March 9 Newsmax article by Jim Thomas began this way:

The Jan. 6 select committee suppressed testimony from former White House deputy chief of staff Anthony Ornato that proves former President Donald Trump was “willing to ask for” 10,000 National Guard troops to safeguard the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Rep. Barry Loudermilk, chairman of the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight.

The Georgia Republican released the transcribed interview Friday in a press release.

Curiously, the Newsmax article now carries a March 20 date despite the March 9 date remaining in the article’s URL. A look back at the archived version of the article reveals that the article has been significantly updated with information that blows up Loudermilk’s narrative:

But the charges were refuted by media watchdog PolitiFact, which noted, citing Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and other committee members, that Ornato’s January 2022 interview transcript was not publicly released until recently for security reasons.

[…]

But PolitiFact reported that the transcript aligns with the select committee’s conclusion that Trump didn’t order the deployment of 10,000 National Guard troops before or during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

“As part of the select committee’s investigation, the committee members and staff interviewed Ornato and Secret Service personnel,” PolitiFact reported. “Ornato left the Secret Service in 2019 to become Trump’s deputy chief of staff and was still in that role Jan. 6, 2021.”

Moreoever, the select committee was “obligated to return certain Secret Service transcripts,” including this Ornato transcript, to the Department of Homeland Security “for redaction of sensitive security information before public release,” Rep. Raskin told PolitiFact.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., also confirmed this with PolitiFact.

The article’s date change is the only hint that it was altered after its original publication; there is no statement indicating that it has been updated to reflect facts that undermine Loudermilk’s narrative. The headline was also changed, from the unattributed “Liz Cheney, Jan. 6 Committee Hid Trump Evidence” to the more accurate “Loudermilk: Jan. 6 Committee Hid Trump Evidence; Raskin Denies.”

Seems as if Newsmax is getting a little jittery about being caught spreading misinformation. Numerous lawsuits to that effect will do that.

But that’s not the only article Newsmax needs to update. A March 11 article by James Morley III referenced a “further revelation on Saturday by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who claimed that Trump had ordered 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the capital and was turned down. ‘The former J6 Select Committee apparently withheld Mr. Ornato’s critical witness testimony from the American people because it contradicted their pre-determined narrative,’ Loudermilk wrote in a statement.”

Also due for an update is Michael Dorstewitz’s March 11 column, which still uncritically states:

Committee investigators interviewed Deputy Chief of Staff and career Secret Service official Anthony Ornato on Jan. 28, 2022.

He testified that he overheard then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows request Bowser’s approve to deploy as many as 10,000 National Guard troops.

Cheney was present at and participated in that interview, the transcript of which was suppressed from the public.

“The former J6 Select Committee apparently withheld Mr. Ornato’s critical witness testimony from the American people because it contradicted their pre-determined narrative,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and chairman of the U.S. House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight.

“Mr. Ornato’s testimony proves what Mr. Meadows has said all along: President Trump did in fact offer 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. Capitol, which was turned down,” he added.

Dorstewitz harped on the claim about National Guard troops further:

From the start, Trump and White House officials claimed that the administration requested National Guard troops to protect the Capitol when the electoral vote was counted and certified by Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

But the members of the since-disbanded Jan. 6 Select Committee, including former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, maintained that they found “no evidence” to support those claims.

The Federalist revealed Friday that Cheney’s claims were not only false, but that committee members actually suppressed evidence that the Trump White House made the request, and that Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser turned it down.

Turns out that claim is false too. According to Just Security, that request came out of “concerns about violence ‘out on the mall area or at the event’ but ‘not anywhere near the Capitol,'” and the discussion involved seeking troops to protect Trump and his supporters – not the U.S. Capitol — and, again, no order or formal request was ever made for Bowser to turn down. Further, Trump had authority over merely 2,000 Guardsmen, so he could not have offered 10,000 troops even if he had actually done so.

Don’t expect Dorstewitz to correct the record — he’s too invested in the narrative that the Jan. 6 committee “the Jan. 6 Committee was considered by many observers to be little more than a Star Chamber, where the findings are pre-determined” and that his false narrative “offers one more reason that Republicans have to retain House leadership, take over the Senate, and secure the White House on Nov. 5.”