US defence professionals face career consequences for Capitol insurrection participation

United States defence professionals employed with the Pentagon or as contractors face a range of career consequences if they are found to have participated in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol insurrection, or participate in similar events at state capitols or legislatures in the future.

Supporters of former US president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in a deadly hours-long melee that resulted in the death of one Capitol Police officer, and injuries to almost 140 officers among Capitol Police and Washington, DC, local police who responded.

On 27 January the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a national terrorism advisory system bulletin as it worries that some ideologically motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fuelled by false narratives, could continue to incite or commit violence.

The DHS is concerned these same drivers of violence will remain through early 2021 and that some domestic violent extremists may be emboldened by the 6 January insurrection to target elected officials and government facilities.

Some individuals involved in the insurrection were seen on news broadcasts wearing clothing with US military logos. One man arrested and accused of breaching the Capitol, Larry Brock, retired from the US Air Force (USAF) Reserve in 2014, according to the USAF spokesperson Ann Stefanek. It is not known if any US defence-contractor employees also participated in the insurrection.

Stan Soloway, Celero Strategies LLC president and CEO and former deputy under secretary of defence for acquisition reform in the late 1990s, told Janes