US Police warn of plot to breach Capitol, House scraps Thursday session

The US Capitol's security has been ramped up in reaction to a "possible plot to breach" the building on Thursday, according to Capitol police.

According to a tweet, the move was motivated by information about threats posed by a militia group. The police force said that it was "prepared for any future attacks directed at members of Congress."

After the warning was announced, the House of Representatives canceled Thursday's session.

However, President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion (£1.36 trillion) Covid-19 relief bill will be debated in the Senate, and will meet in the Capitol as well.

“Our Department is working with our local, state, and federal partners to stop any threats to the Capitol,” the US Capitol Police said in a statement. “We are taking the intelligence seriously.

“Due to the sensitive nature of this information, we cannot provide additional details at this time.”

The threat comes two months after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol building in January while elected lawmakers were inside moving to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.

The riot saw five people including a police officer killed and shook the foundations of American democracy. The head of the Capitol police force later resigned.

The US Justice Department has charged more than 300 people with participation in the siege. Those arrested include members of the right-wing militia groups the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.

Democrats said the attack amounted to an insurrection and led an impeachment of Trump for allegedly inciting the mob, making him the first president in US history to be impeached twice. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate.

In late February Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman told Congress that the Trump supporters behind the January attack want to “blow up” the Capitol and kill lawmakers.

Leon Panetta, a former US Defence Secretary and CIA chief, told the BBC that police would take no chances following January’s attack.

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“We have got to have constant intelligence on domestic terrorists, have to track their possible efforts to again repeat what happened on January sixth and I think that’s what you’re seeing now, is an abundance of caution to make sure that we are properly prepared to react, if in fact any group attempts any kind of armed attack again on the United States Capitol,” he said.

Supporters of an extremist conspiracy theory known as QAnon falsely believe Thursday will mark Trump’s return to the White House for a second term.

They have latched onto this date because before the 20th amendment of the US Constitution – adopted in 1933 – moved the swearing-in dates of the president and Congress to January, American leaders took office on 4 March.

QAnon is a wide-ranging and completely unfounded theory which says that President Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.

Last week, an FBI official told The Washington Post that security services were aware of online QAnon discussions surrounding 4 March, but that they did not "have any evidence of violence or a real, plausible plot at this time."

The acting intelligence chief of the Department of Homeland Security, Melissa Smislova, reported to lawmakers on Wednesday that an internal intelligence bulletin concerning "extremists discussing 4 March, and 6 March" had been released.