"Dear Senator Feinstein\Padilla:

As you are aware, the House Select Committee on January 6, 2021 held its final hearings and released its final report in the days before the new Congress convenes under a Republican majority and the dissolution of the House Select Committee. We need a Senate Select Committee to continue the work of investigating the events of that fateful day in Janaury.

What the House accomplished is necessary but not sufficient. I agree with the House report that, without Trump, there would have been no insurrection. He was the chief ringleader, along with members of his inner circle. But Trump's incitement of a riot that January day could never have succeeded to the degree it did without serious failures by the domestic intelligence and security services.

Specifically, the House Report only briefly mentions in Appendices 1 & II the obvious lapses in intelligence that led to such a febrile response to the seditionists in the early minutes and hours of the attack on the Capital. The American people deserve to know why, after billions of dollars have been spent on homeland security since 9-11, so little was actually done by the Department of Homeland Security to thwart what in retrospect was clearly an existential threat to the republic. In the days leading up to the insurrection, many field reports from FBI and other security agents conveyed warnings about what was coming on January 6 (including threats of violence against public officials nd the process to certify the Electoral College results).

I want to know answers to at least two questions:

1. Why was National Guard commander William Walker told not to deploy until the attack was several hours old?

2) Why were threats of violence that day conveyed by FBI agents and undercover operatives not acted upon by DHS?

Senator Padilla, I know that you were only sworn into office on January 20, 2021, so you missed all the excitement by a couple weeks. But surely a keen sense of self preservation will motivate you and your staff to keep digging into these questions. You will have my full and enthusiastic support if you do so. (**I changed the wording slightly for the email to Feinstein, to reflect the fact that she was there on January 6, 2021 and probably scared out of her wits.**)

Respectfully,"

I will post any response(s) I receive that diverge from boiler-plate form letter politesse.