Latest news with #ThomasManger
CBS News
5 days ago
- General
- CBS News
As Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger retires, he's concerned about spike in threats against lawmakers
As U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger retires from his post at the Capitol Friday, he says the threats facing members of Congress have accelerated — they've more than quadrupled over the past several years and remain alarmingly high. Manger, who took charge of the department in the difficult months after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol siege, quantified the surge in threats targeting lawmakers and how the department has had to evolve to expand its protection of senators and House members. Leaning forward in his seat to emphasize his point, Manger said, "It's a huge responsibility. We've gone from 1,000 to 2,000 threats a year to now 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 threats a year." And those threats are now reaching outside the Capitol. The department is being spread farther and wider to prevent attacks. "The threats are coming in from all over the country. Not everybody knows it, but the Capitol Police has nationwide jurisdiction to address those threats," Manger said. "So, we are sending investigators and agents all over this country to investigate these cases." He has helped secure large budget increases for his department to help protect the Capitol campus, its members, staffers and visitors. But the growing need to bolster security and investigations in the 50 states — including the hometowns and home offices of members of Congress — has required more funding and more staff. Manger's budget request for 2026 is nearly $1 billion, approximately double the funding the department was given in 2021, prior to the Capitol riot. In a letter to a U.S. House subcommittee in April, Manger wrote, "I recognize there are other police departments of a similar size whose budget is not as large as ours, but we are not an ordinary law enforcement agency." In his request, Manger also said he expected the number of threats against lawmakers to continue to rise, "given the current political climate." The Capitol Police have aggressively recruited and set ambitious hiring goals to help bolster their protection details for members of Congress. Manger, in his testimony before the House Appropriations Committee last month, said the department is adding dozens of new positions in the unit that oversees protective details and intelligence. He told CBS News the department was already hampered with a staffing shortage before the Jan. 6 attack and has faced hurdles in its effort to hire, due to morale issues and trauma suffered by officers after the Insurrection. Four officers who responded on Jan. 6 died by suicide within seven months of the attack. Many officers at the Capitol that day were subjected to repeated violent assaults. Manger has been urging lawmakers to support his recommended budget increase to help boost officer hiring and recruitment. "When [lawmakers] travel, when they're at the airports, when they have congressional business to do at home," Manger said. "They've got to meet with their constituents. So, we want to make sure that they're safe." An immediate replacement for Manger has not yet been named. The U.S. Capitol Police Board will select a successor, but he expects some lawmakers will also want to meet candidates for the position. At an April hearing on the Capitol Police budget, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a New York Democrat who has oversight of the police department, said the department "does need more to keep us safe."
CBS News
28-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Capitol police chief Thomas Manger says Trump's pardon of Jan. 6 rioters was "probably one of my worst days in this job"
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger, who took charge of the department in the difficult months after the U.S. Capitol siege, is retiring from his position Friday. After the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, he helped rebuild the department's shrunken staff, beefed up recruitment efforts and bolstered the agency's intelligence operations and communications to fix weaknesses revealed by the breach of the Capitol. Manger told CBS News he faced stiff challenges when he arrived on the job in 2021. File: U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images "The department as a whole had lost confidence in the (prior) leadership as a result of what happened," he said. "And there were big things that were identified as things that needed to be fixed as quickly as we could fix them: Things like the intelligence failures, the communication failures, the equipment failures, the training failures, the leadership failures — all of those things needed to be addressed immediately." Manger, a former local police chief in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland, successfully advocated for increases in funding to improve hiring, equipment and operations. The department was blasted by critics for intelligence failures that contributed to the violation of the complex on Jan. 6, 2021. "We now have a world class intelligence operation. We are significant players in the intelligence community in the Washington, D.C., region and, frankly, all over the country," Manger said. "Whereas before, we were basically just —... we were consumers of information. The FBI would give us intelligence, other agencies would give us intelligence. Now we are gathering our own." The U.S. Capitol Police Board will select a new police chief, which Manger predicts will happen soon. Manger has requested nearly $1 billion in funding for 2026, which would represent the latest in a series of recent budget boosts for the department. In testimony before a congressional committee on justifying his budget request, Manger cited an elevated number of investigations into threats against members of Congress. "The current climate of threats has reached alarming levels," he told the committee in April. Capitol Police records show the number of threats launched against congressional members in 2024 exceeded 9,400. He added, "Social media and the internet provide a breeding ground for threats that — regardless of their nature — the department must investigate." Manger and the Capitol Police have also bolstered the department's operations outside of Washington, responding to potential threats in the hometowns of lawmakers. The department has a unique mission among police agencies, protecting elected leaders and securing the U.S. Capitol campus, which hosts over 3 million visitors each year. The Capitol is open to the public, and lawmakers are accessible to citizens. Manger has been critical of the pardons issued by President Trump to free Capitol rioters who beat, clubbed and gassed Capitol Police and other officers during the attack on the Capitol. He told CBS News that when Mr. Trump issued 1,500 pardons to the suspected and convicted rioters when he took office, it "was probably one of my worst days in this job." He also blasted conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 that continue to circulate on social media. "My folks were here on Jan. 6. They were part of what went on. They were assaulted," Manger said. "They were in fights. Many of them were injured. They know exactly what happened on Jan. 6. For somebody to make up some story that, 'Oh, it wasn't that bad,' — it is just not true." "What a chilling message to law enforcement, because we've got a job to do, and we don't care what the issue is," Manger continued. "We don't care what side of the coin you're on on any particular issue because we have a job to do, to maintain public order and to keep the peace." Rep. Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat who is the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration, said of Manger, "Since taking over at the department's hour of greatest need, he professionalized a force in need of steady leadership." A union representative for Capitol Police officers told CBS News, "Manpower is still an issue, as well as balancing work and family life for the rank and file officers, which continues to plague morale within the agency." As he prepares to leave the department, Manger was lauded by one of the former Capitol Police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot. Former officer Harry Dunn told CBS News, "He showed his love for country, his love for law enforcement and his continued dedication to public service."
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A retiring chief strains to keep the Capitol Police above the partisan fray
Thomas Manger inherited a force in crisis when he became chief of the U.S. Capitol Police four years ago. He's now leaving a force under a microscope. The 70-year-old law enforcement veteran came out of retirement just months after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — tasked with stabilizing a department whose officers had been physically and emotionally battered and whose protective mission had suddenly grown immensely more complicated. But that was only the beginning of challenge for Manger, who soon found himself holding one of the most politicized jobs in all of policing. Within months, an alternative narrative about Jan. 6 took hold on the right, and with many of its proponents now in power in Washington — including President Donald Trump — he has had to strike a careful balance between standing up for his officers and heeding the lawmakers who oversee and fund his department. 'I don't think it's wise or necessary or useful to try and convince members of Congress what to think,' Manger said. 'I think you make the compelling argument about what the Capitol Police need, about what the Capitol Police require to do their jobs and allow them to make a decision.' That's not to say Manger has been silent. He has spoken out at key junctures, criticizing Trump's blanket pardons of Jan. 6 offenders and, just last week, the Justice Department's decision to move toward a $5 million settlement with the family of Ashli Babbit — the Jan. 6 rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer while trying to storm a room off the House floor. But in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday — amid his last week on the job before retiring for good — Manger said it wasn't productive for the embattled force's chief to be snarled in political fights on the Hill, or in the larger war over the memory of the Capitol insurrection. While Manger has felt compelled to speak up about situations that directly affect his officers, he has taken pains to stay out of other battles. He again called the pardons 'an absolute slap in the face to police officers, frankly, all over this country' Tuesday, for instance, but refused to weigh in on the fate of a bronze plaque commemorating the officers who responded to the riot. Congress ordered the fabrication of the memorial and its installation 'at a permanent location on the western front of the United States Capitol' in March 2022. The plaque was cast, inscribed with 'THEIR HEROISM WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN,' but after Republicans won the House majority the following November, it was put into storage in the Capitol basement. Calling it a 'very political issue,' Manger said he has not spoken to Republican congressional leaders about the plaque and declined to call for it to be installed. He said he had not seen the actual memorial, just a photograph. 'I hope they will find some middle ground,' he said. 'There's not a lot of memorials that are attached to the Capitol building, but there are certainly a lot of informational pedestals where you have little historical briefings around the campus.' The tap dance reflects the enormous challenges of managing a department that is ultimately responsible to a web of overlapping overseers. There's the three-member Capitol Police Board, four oversight committees and senior congressional leaders themselves — all of whom have influence over the department and how it operates. Manger — who previously led the departments in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia — said dealing with the menagerie of Capitol Hill power centers was 'very different' from reporting to a single elected executive and 'very, very challenging.' That, he said, has required a focus on the future of the Capitol Police and securing what the department needs to keep lawmakers, tourists and staff safe. It's also a situation that will hang over whoever replaces Manger as chief. 'If they pick someone from the inside, they're going to know what our mission is,' Manger said. 'They'll have that — that's good. If they pick somebody from the outside, they're going to have to learn about our mission, the uniqueness of it, but the structure of oversight as well, and there is a learning curve there.' An even bigger challenge for the force, however, has been keeping up with a rising tide of threats against lawmakers. The department reported more than 9,400 in 2024, and a good number of those threats were deemed credible enough to require temporary protective details for rank-and-file lawmakers who otherwise would not be entitled to them. That has stretched resources thin, Manger said: 'We're always robbing Peter to pay Paul to put that together. We should have the staffing to do those kinds of details.' Manger recently made his final budget requests to Congress, asking lawmakers for $967.8 million for fiscal 2026, a 22 percent boost over the current funding level which was set in fiscal 2024. He acknowledged in hearings with appropriators that for his department's size — about 2,300 sworn officers and civilians — a budget approaching a billion dollars is enormous. He stressed the sweeping intelligence, security and nationwide coordination mandate of the Capitol Police. Both the Trump administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to rein in federal spending, and lawmakers tasked with spending are expected to begin writing their bills in the coming weeks. The outgoing chief warned against continuing to keep funding flat for the department he's set to exit long before any spending deal is reached. 'It would impact our ability to address the growing number of threats against a member of Congress,' Manger said. 'We'd just be crossing our fingers and saying, 'Well, hope nothing happens,' because there's more that we think we can do if we had the resources.' The job of choosing Manger's replacement will fall to the Capitol Police Board, comprised of House Sergeant-at-Arms William McFarland, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Jennifer Hemingway and Architect of the Capitol Thomas Austin. Top congressional leaders choose those officials and are expected to have some influence in the pick. Manger said that anyone coming in after him has to know that the job has a much different mandate and set of responsibilities than a municipal police department. He said he would be available as a sounding board but was looking forward to retirement — some consulting work, maybe, and finally fixing the fence in his yard. 'One of the things that I really, truly want to get away from is the aggravations of being a police chief,' he said. 'So whatever I do, it's going to be something I want to do.'
CBS News
28-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger retires Friday, after rebuilding department in wake of Capitol riot
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger, who took charge of the department in the difficult months after the U.S. Capitol siege, is retiring from his position Friday. After the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, he helped rebuild the department's shrunken staff, beefed up recruitment efforts and bolstered the agency's intelligence operations and communications to fix weaknesses revealed by the breach of the Capitol. Manger told CBS News he faced stiff challenges when he arrived on the job in 2021. File: U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger is seen prior to testifying before a Senate panel on budget estimates for fiscal year 2026. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images "The department as a whole had lost confidence in the (prior) leadership as a result of what happened," he said. "And there were big things that were identified as things that needed to be fixed as quickly as we could fix them: Things like the intelligence failures, the communication failures, the equipment failures, the training failures, the leadership failures — all of those things needed to be addressed immediately." Manger, a former local police chief in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland, successfully advocated for increases in funding to improve hiring, equipment and operations. The department was blasted by critics for intelligence failures that contributed to the violation of the complex on Jan. 6, 2021. "We now have a world class intelligence operation. We are significant players in the intelligence community in the Washington, D.C., region and, frankly, all over the country," Manger said. "Whereas before, we were basically just —... we were consumers of information. The FBI would give us intelligence, other agencies would give us intelligence. Now we are gathering our own." The U.S. Capitol Police Board will select a new police chief, which Manger predicts will happen soon. Manger has requested nearly $1 billion in funding for 2026, which would represent the latest in a series of recent budget boosts for the department. In testimony before a congressional committee on justifying his budget request, Manger cited an elevated number of investigations into threats against members of Congress. "The current climate of threats has reached alarming levels," he told the committee in April. Capitol Police records show the number of threats launched against congressional members in 2024 exceeded 9,400. He added, "Social media and the internet provide a breeding ground for threats that — regardless of their nature — the department must investigate." Manger and the Capitol Police have also bolstered the department's operations outside of Washington, responding to potential threats in the hometowns of lawmakers. The department has a unique mission among police agencies, protecting elected leaders and securing the U.S. Capitol campus, which hosts over 3 million visitors each year. The Capitol is open to the public, and lawmakers are accessible to citizens. Manger has been critical of the pardons issued by President Trump to free Capitol rioters who beat, clubbed and gassed Capitol Police and other officers during the attack on the Capitol. He told CBS News that when Mr. Trump issued 1,500 pardons to the suspected and convicted rioters when he took office, it "was probably one of my worst days in this job." He also blasted conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 that continue to circulate on social media. "My folks were here on Jan. 6. They were part of what went on. They were assaulted," Manger said. "They were in fights. Many of them were injured. They know exactly what happened on Jan. 6. For somebody to make up some story that, 'Oh, it wasn't that bad,' — it is just not true." "What a chilling message to law enforcement, because we've got a job to do, and we don't care what the issue is," Manger continued. "We don't care what side of the coin you're on on any particular issue because we have a job to do, to maintain public order and to keep the peace." Rep. Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat who is the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration, said of Manger, "Since taking over at the department's hour of greatest need, he professionalized a force in need of steady leadership." A union representative for Capitol Police officers told CBS News, "Manpower is still an issue, as well as balancing work and family life for the rank and file officers, which continues to plague morale within the agency." As he prepares to leave the department, Manger was lauded by one of the former Capitol Police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot. Former officer Harry Dunn told CBS News, "He showed his love for country, his love for law enforcement and his continued dedication to public service."
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration planning to pay $5 million to the family of a rioter killed on Jan. 6
It was a few weeks ago when Justice Department lawyers indicated in a court hearing that they'd reached a settlement with the family of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter who was fatally shot by a police officer during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. At the time, however, there were no public indications as to the scope of the settlement. As The New York Times reported, those details are now coming into view. The Justice Department is discussing giving the relatives of Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran killed by the police during the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, about $5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit they brought against the government last year, according to two people familiar with the matter. Different news organizations have come to different conclusions about the specifics of the legal process — some have said the settlement agreement is complete, for example — but NBC News is on the same page as the Times, which noted that the details of the negotiations are still being finalized. Nevertheless, the pointed reactions to the developments have been notable. For example, Thomas Manger, the outgoing chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, does not usually issue public statements, but as Politico reported, in this instance, he made an exception. 'I am extremely disappointed and disagree with this settlement,' Manger said, noting that a prior Justice Department investigation found no wrongdoing by police. 'This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide, especially to those with a protective mission like ours.' On Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a similar reaction. 'Awarding the family of an insurrectionist $5 million is an insult to first responders — those who are in the Capitol and those everywhere,' the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor. 'It sends a sickening message to police and all other first responders throughout the country: When it matters most, Donald Trump will turn his back on you.' For those who might need a refresher, let's revisit our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point. During the Jan. 6 attack, a group of rioters reached a doorway that led to a House chamber hallway. That hallway was an escape route for lawmakers who could see the attackers through glass windows. As regular readers know, when rioters smashed through those windows, one of the insurrectionists, Babbitt, tried to break through to enter the hallway where members of Congress were being evacuated to safety. Officers asked her to stand down. She refused. A police officer eventually fired a single shot, and the rioter later died at a local hospital. Then-Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a year before the Oklahoma Republican's election to the Senate, was a witness to the developments and conceded publicly that the officer 'did what he had to do' and 'didn't have a choice.' What's more, the U.S. Capitol Police cleared the lieutenant who fired the shot, and the Justice Department officials who examined the matter determined that charges against the officer were not warranted. In the months that immediately followed the attack on the Capitol, most leading Republicans, including Trump, expressed little interest in Babbitt. Her death was of great interest to the far-right fringe, but at least initially, Trump did not see her story as worthy of attention, and he also didn't see the need to lash out at the police officer who had protected dozens of lawmakers and their aides. But in June 2021, the Republican said that he saw Babbitt as an ally who was on his 'side.' A month later, he said the rioter was 'innocent.' A month after that, he accused the officer who shot her of 'murder.' In 2023, Trump condemned the cop as a 'thug' and a 'coward' who deserves to be vilified, and earlier this year, the president inexplicably claimed that Babbitt was 'shot for no reason whatsoever.' This rhetoric is notable because it helps explain the apparent settlement. In theory, given the facts of the case, there's no reason for the administration to settle with the Babbitt family, whose civil suit was likely to fail. But in practice, the president and his team want to use American taxpayers' money to reward Jan. 6 rioters, so it's not the least bit surprising that the Trump administration also wants to direct $5 million to the Babbitt family, the weakness of their case notwithstanding. This article was originally published on
