The FBI is taking a further look into the guardsmen that have been deployed to secure the U.S. Capitol ahead of Joe Biden’s upcoming inauguration. The government agency is conducting an enhanced background screening on the members of the National Guard to ensure there are no inside threats.
“What happens is they’re screened before they leave their state, and what it is is a credentialing process so they’re screened and they’re repeatedly screened until they are actually put on the street,” Major General William Walker said in an interview with “Good Morning America.”
“It’s all about the background,” he said of the process. “So, a regular background check is enhanced with more screening, more details and it’s layered so the FBI is part of it, the Secret Service is part of it, and once they are certain that there’s no insider threat, then that soldier, guardsman or airman is given a credential.”
It is not clear whether the screenings will question the members about their thoughts on the validity of the election results.
Following the Jan 6. insurrection, the FBI shared their beliefs that staffers and Capitol Police were complicit in the rioters’ siege and may have granted them access to the government building.
Thousands of guardsmen from various cities were subsequently stationed in the nation’s capital to prevent from further attacks. Some of the officers who had nowhere to go were captured sleeping in the Capitol’s hallways and staircases with their weapons by their side as they provided extra security.
The DC National Guard, in particular, have been trained to report inappropriate sightings to their chain of command.
“There is no place for extremism in the military, and we will investigate each report individually and take appropriate action,” an Army spokesperson said last week in a written statement.