NEW: After the violent and mostly White pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol last week, Black & brown people had to clean up the mess. Several told @Politicsinsider they were well aware of the racial dynamics. By @elvina_nawaguna & @KaylaEpstein ($)

The Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol left behind shards of broken glass and ripped-apart furniture, blood, empty bottles, and even feces smeared on the walls.
The custodial staff cleaned up in places where people were bludgeoned & in one instance fatally shot, & where dozens of Capitol Police officers were wounded. "It felt bad. It's degrading," said a custodial employee in his 30s, who works for the Architect of the Capitol.
Several Capitol janitorial and labor employees — all of whom were Black or Latino — told Insider they no longer feel safe at their workplace, which is supposed to be one of the most secure in the country.
They recounted the hurt of cleaning up after white nationalists who could have threatened their lives, and they feared what's yet to come in the days leading to and on Inauguration Day.
"I was here on 9/11 & that was probably the most scared I've ever been in my 25 years here but this one is a step a notch on the scale," said a longtime Capitol staffer. "It's a little bit worse than 9/11 for me. It was a little more personal, in a sense."
That employee said he was dismayed at just how easily the attackers bypassed Capitol police & how police officers appeared to treat with kid gloves all the people he described as "the radicals." While he was hiding in the Capitol, his family members frantically called and texted.
"I'm a man of faith, so that helps me, you know," he said, but he remained concerned about what would have happened if the rioters "would confront me personally" and how he'd have responded.
"I'm going to tell it like this: if I were the Capitol Police, I wouldn't have a job the next day. If my life is in danger, then I'm going to do what I can to defend myself," the longtime Hill staffer said as he climbed the escalators near the Senate subway.
Another man who performs janitorial services told Insider he hid in a large room during the riots after his supervisor told him to seek shelter. "I was all by myself," he said. His mother gave him minute to minute updates by phone because "I didn't know what was going on."
A spokesperson for the Architect of the Capitol told Insider that the office has an "Employee Assistance Program", which is a "free, voluntary and confidential program that can assist AOC employees as they work through stress and personal or professional challenges.
Employees have access to a service that offers immediate, 24/7 telephonic access to confidential, in-the-moment counseling support delivered by qualified behavioral health professionals, no appointment necessary."
Some workers also expressed fears for their safety in the days surrounding Biden's inauguration as intel officials warn of other armed protests. "I do not want to work on inauguration, no I do not," a Hill employee said. "I honestly fear for my life. I've got 2 children at home."
"I hope nothing else happens because these people were talking about killing us, federal employees, killing police...I felt kind of disgusted," added another employee who said he'd worked at the Capitol for more than 28 years.
A 45-year-old janitorial employee who helped restore the Capitol the day after the attack said he was "used to" cleaning up after white supremacists at the Capitol even before the pro-Trump attackers ransacked the buildings.
"I'm used to it...the building we work in, you think they were the only ones here?" he said of the rioters. He clarified that he was referring to some of the lawmakers in the Capitol, and added that he prays for them.
Eye-opening read from @elvina_nawaguna & @KaylaEpstein after talking to the many people who do the hard work in the Capitol that keeps it running day and night. Here's how to subscribe to @businessinsider - https://t.co/aC5iwU4Ch6

More from Legal

1/ On Jan 2 we introduced Proud Boy Billy Knutson to the world. Billy said he was going to DC to "literally go Antifa hunting."

Well, Proud Boy Billy Knutson stormed the U.S. capitol with his fellow terrorists and participated in a failed coup:
https://t.co/Ctb7vThYhs


2/ Terrorist Proud Boy Billy Knutson placing himself at the scene of the failed coup in DC to overthrow democracy:


3/ From terrorist Proud Boy Billy Knutson's Parler in his own words:

PS: We see Texas Charter Plane 5 Jenna Ryan made the big time at the failed U.S. coup in DC


4/ FAIR USE claim: shows context in tweets

Terrorist Proud Boy Billy Knutson's Parler video where you can hear him screaming, "Stand Back and Stand By Motherf*ckers!" while standing on the US capitol steps. Speaker says they'll be back on Inauguration Day.


5/ Terrorist Proud Boy Billy Knutson already lost his Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, & Twitter before heading to DC

However @Spotify & @YouTube continue to platform Billy Knutson, aka Playboy The Beast, a terrorist that participated in the U.S. failed
As usual, @C_Stroop is right that we need to get ready to roll up our sleeves. This doesn't end on inauguration day. Christian Nationalism needs to be in the spotlight it must be exposed to be fought. Small town Christo-fascism is on the rise, and my hometown is an example. 1/


My hometown is Alamogordo, New Mexico. It's a military town. Holloman Air Force base is nearby, and so is the Army's White Sands Missile Range. It's also a hotbed of White Evangelical Christian Nationalism. 2/

Currently, the most notorious Christian Nationalist from Alamogordo that I can think of is Couy Griffin (no relation to me). He's a former pastor, turned County Commissioner, and founder of the group "Cowboys for Trump." I've talked about him before.


Couy Griffin and his Cowboys for Trump attended the the Coup Klux Klan in D.C. I'm not surprised. They went prepared for extremism. Here's a quick video of them outside the kitschy "Running Indian" trading post just outside Alamogordo. 4/


Notice what they say. "Give me liberty or give me death" and "We've god God on our side, and we've got the Truth on our side." Probably every Ex-evangelical I know has heard those words in church. 5/

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The entire discussion around Facebook’s disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when.


In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.

In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.

This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.

In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.