Ex-president Donald Trump’s former acting defense secretary had some interesting news for lawmakers Wednesday, telling them Trump asked for National Guard troops to be deployed to protect his supporters at the January 6 rally that culminated in hundreds of those supporters violently rampaging through the Capitol, Insider reports.

In an appearance, Wednesday before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller reported Trump held a meeting with him on Jan. 3 prior to the deadly siege and asked him if there had been any requests for National Guard support for the now-infamous “Stop The Steal” rally.

Where, of course, Trump would insist on making more allegations of voter fraud during November’s 2020 presidential election.

Well, this is new.

Trump told his acting Secretary of Defense to use military force for what purpose?

Miller: Trump said "do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators that were executing their constitutionally protected rights."

Occurs in their Jan. 3 meeting. pic.twitter.com/jnEDYVUzsK

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) May 12, 2021

Miller said he informed Trump that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had requested unarmed support from the National Guard for the demonstrations that were planned on Jan. 5 and 6. He added that Trump ordered him to grant the Mayor’s request and told him “to do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators that were executing their constitutionally protected rights.”

Miller and Trump were roundly criticized for the fact that it took the Pentagon more than three hours to approve the deployment of National Guard troops to the Capitol after it was breached by insurrectionists, but Miller defended his actions to the committee.

“I stand by every decision I made on January 6, he told Rep. Ro Khanna after he was asked to apologize to American citizens for the actions he took that day.

In his written testimony to Congress, he said he deployed troops in areas well away from the Capitol in order to avoid fanning conspiracy theory flames that the Army would somehow become involved in attempts to overturn the election. Doing so, he added, risked “amplifying the narrative that your Armed Forces were somehow going to be co-opted in an effort to overturn the election.”

Miller said he approved Bowser’s request on Jan. 4 and deployed National Guard troops to 30 traffic-control points around the White House. Troops were also deployed at six subway stations to block vehicles from entering the area. The purpose, he said, was to “demonstrate a law enforcement presence” and “intervene, only if required, in disturbances.”

Well, we already know how well this “disturbance” played out.

And virtually none of this would have been necessary if Trump had acted like a decent human being. But he didn’t, so here we are.