The former Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, Steven Sund, has publicly rebuked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she criticized President Donald Trump’s recent deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles. Sund, who oversaw security during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, took to social media Wednesday to correct what he called a “misleading narrative” about that day—one that he says Pelosi continues to distort.
The controversy erupted after Pelosi condemned Trump for sending in federalized troops to restore order in Los Angeles, where violent riots broke out following a series of high-profile ICE arrests of illegal immigrants, many with criminal records. President Trump authorized up to 4,000 California National Guard members to secure federal buildings and personnel, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deployed an additional 700 U.S. Marines to support stabilization efforts. The unrest, which began over the weekend, escalated quickly, prompting the White House to intervene after California Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass failed to act decisively.
At a Wednesday press conference, Pelosi criticized Trump’s decision, calling it a constitutional overreach. She pointedly remarked, “On January 6, during violence against the Constitution and Congress, we pleaded with the president to send the National Guard—he refused. Yet now, without legal basis, he sends troops to California. There’s something fundamentally wrong with this picture.”
That statement drew immediate fire from Sund, who broke his relative silence since the Capitol riot. In a strongly worded response, he countered Pelosi’s claims with a timeline:
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