Foreign spies were likely on the scene as MAGA rioters stormed Capitol warns senior GOP Armed Services Committee aide as he quits with blistering attack on his own party for 'enabling mob'

A top Republican staffer on the House Armed Services Committee resigned from his position, while warning there were likely foreign spies at Wednesday's Capitol Hill riot. 

Jason Schmid sent out a blistering resignation letter to the incoming ranking member, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, and the committee's membership, blasting Republican members for putting 'political theater ahead of the defense of the Constitution and the Republic.' 

'Foreign intelligence services were likely on the scene and will certainly capitalize on the crisis it has caused - our people will pay a steep price,' Schmid warned in a letter first obtained by Politico. 'Congressional enablers of this mob have made future foreign conflict more likely, not less.' 

A top Republican aide on the House Armed Services Committee wrote a letter to leadership and members that warned that 'foreign intelligence services were likely on the scene' of Wednesday's Capitol Building riot 

Jason Schmid resigned from the committee after 13 GOP lawmakers who serve on it voted in favor of challenging Electoral College votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania - votes they took after Wednesday's riot 

Jason Schmid wrote a blistering resignation letter Tuesday to the top Republican and other members of the House Armed Services Committee 

Schmid's issue was with the 147 House Republicans and seven GOP senators who voted in favor of challenging Electoral College results in Arizona and Pennsylvania in the hours after the MAGA mob's violent incident killed five, including a Capitol Police officer. 

'A poisonous lie that the election was illegitimate and should be overturned inspired so called "patriots" to share common cause with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists to attack the seat of American government,' he wrote. 

'Anyone who watched those horrible hours unfold should have been galvanized to rebuke these insurrectionists in the strongest terms,' he continued. 

'Instead, some members whom I believed to be leaders in the defense of the nation chose to put political theater ahead of the defense of the Constitution and the Republic,' he added. 

Schmid said the decision to vote against legitimate Electoral College electors put in harm's way 'every service member, intelligence officer and diplomat.' 

'How are they to effectively defend American democratic ideals when the entire world saw so many members disregard those same ideals for cynical political purposes?' Schmid asked GOP lawmakers. 

President Donald Trump had encouraged Republicans to object to the Electoral College results in key swing states where 'alternate' electors had met and backed the president, instead of the rightful winner of those states, President-elect Joe Biden. 

Lawmakers were in the process of debating an objection to Arizona's Electoral College count when rioters broke into the Capitol Building. 

Around midnight Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley backed another GOP House-led objection to Pennsylvania's votes going to Biden, triggering another two hours of debate and then a vote. 

Overall, 13 members of the House Armed Services Committee voted in favor of these challenges. 

Schmid called the number 'disturbing.'  

Trump had also pushed Vice President Mike Pence to singlehandedly choose which Electoral College votes to count, pressuring him to certify votes from the 'alternate' electors. 

Pence has no Constitutional power to do such a thing - and did not go through with Trump's plan.  

Thanks to Trump, rioters were under the delusion that Congress - or Pence - would be able to overturn the results of the election. 

'These self-inflicted wounds are a gift to autocrats who seek a diminished America and are fundamentally inconsistent with the responsibility to provide for the common defense,' Schmid said. 

The outgoing staffer concluded his letter by saying 'the failure of so many Republican members of the Committee to put the nation ahead of electoral politics compels my resignation from the staff.'