Thomas Manger selected to take over embattled Capitol Police

Thomas Manger, the former police chief of Montgomery County, Maryland, has been selected as the new U.S. Capitol Police chief, Congressman Tim Ryan confirmed to CBS News. Ryan chairs of one of the subcommittees that has oversight of the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP).

Manger replaces acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman, who took over after Steven Sund resigned, a day after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead, including one Capitol Police officer.  

The news of Manger’s selection was first reported by The Associated Press. 

Manger retired from the Montgomery County police department in April 2019, after 15 years, according to The Washington Post. He has served 42 years as a police officer, having led the Fairfax County, Virginia, police department before taking the helm in Montgomery County.

Manger told The Washington Post that he kept sketched tracings of the names of officers who died in the line of duty under his command. “They’re in my heart, in my head,” he said.

He’ll be taking over a police department that has faced heavily criticism in the wake of the January 6 assault, when a mob of supporters of former President Trump overran the Capitol and sent lawmakers fleeing while they were in session to count the Electoral College votes. Federal authorities have undertaken a massive investigation to identify rioters, and at least 535 people have been charged. 

The rioters overwhelmed USCP officers as they tore through the building, breaking down the door to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and making it onto the Senate floor. 

Pittman testified before Congress in February that “no credible threat indicated that tens of thousands would attack the U.S. Capitol, nor did the intelligence received from the FBI or any other law enforcement partner indicate such a threat.”

In his resignation letter, Sund defended his force’s response, calling the officers’ actions “heroic, given the situation they faced.”

“The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.,” he said.

Multiple sources told CBS News soon after the attack that morale had been low among the officers. An 15-year veteran of the USCP, Officer Howard Liebengood, died by suicide days after the attack and his widow has demanded the police department “be held accountable” and asked that the department institute reforms.