Jan. 6 committee won’t drop focus on Loudermilk after Capitol Police cleared him

The Jan. 6 committee still has questions for a representative who conducted a tour of the Capitol on Jan. 5, even though the Capitol Police said there wasn’t a problem.

Members of the committee want more information from Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) after he was seen walking around the Capitol the day before the riot broke out. Some of the people on the tour returned the next day with the rioters. Despite their presence on Jan. 6, the Capitol Police said there was nothing “suspicious” about Loudermilk providing the tour.

GOP REPRESENTATIVE’S TOUR OF CONGRESS ON EVE OF JAN. 6 NOT SUSPICIOUS: CAPITOL POLICE

“The behavior of these individuals during the January 5, 2021 tour raises concerns about their activity and intent while inside the Capitol complex. The Select Committee has learned that some individuals you sponsored into the complex attended the rally at the Ellipse on the morning of January 6, 2021,” Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) wrote in a letter to Loudermilk.

Members of the committee have asked Loudermilk to meet with them to discuss the tour.

Loudermilk ripped the panel in response, accusing members of “doubling down on their smear campaign” and “undermining the Capitol Police,” which “already put this false accusation to bed.” He also condemned the panel for releasing the letter to the press before contacting him.

“This false narrative that the Committee and Democrats continue to push, that Republicans, including myself, led reconnaissance tours is verifiably false,” he said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “No where that I went with the visitors in the House Office Buildings on January 5th were breached on January 6th; and, to my knowledge, no one in that group was criminally charged in relation to January 6th.”

Loudermilk praised the Capitol Police finding as vindication Tuesday, proclaiming, “The truth will always prevail.” But while the Capitol Police found nothing “suspicious” about his tour, the panel claimed some of the people on his tour marched toward the Capitol from the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021. In its letter, the committee included photographs from the footage it obtained.

“The Select Committee has learned that some individuals you sponsored into the complex attended the rally at the Ellipse on the morning of January 6, 2021,” he wrote. “Later, these individuals joined the unpermitted march from the Ellipse to the U.S. Capitol. While standing near the Capitol grounds, the same individual made a video that contained detailed and disturbing threats against specific Members of Congress.”

“The individual who appeared to photograph a staircase in the Longworth House Office Building filmed a companion with a flagpole appearing to have a sharpened end who spoke to the camera saying, ‘It’s for a certain person,’ while making an aggressive jabbing motion,” Thompson added. “While standing near the Capitol grounds, the same individual made a video that contained detailed and disturbing threats against specific Members of Congress. For example, as the individual filmed the march to the Capitol, he said, ‘There’s no escape Pelosi.'”

Thompson did not name the person in question and did not elaborate on whether the people participated in the storming of the Capitol beyond making threats and marching over from the Ellipse. He noted that Loudermilk declined to review the video evidence the panel had compiled when he met with its members.

Even though police determined Loudermilk’s tour did not include the Capitol building, the panel noted that some of the rioters made threats to members of Congress who were likely located in the surrounding office buildings.

In addition to the Capitol Police reviewing the case, Republicans on the House Administration Committee also examined security footage. They concluded that “there were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on,” the Washington Post reported.

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The Washington Examiner reached out to representatives for the Jan. 6 committee and the Capitol Police for comment. The Jan. 6 committee held its second public hearing on Monday and is slated to host its third one on Thursday.

Loudermilk was among the 147 House Republicans who objected to the certification of the 2020 election. He had also voted against impeaching former President Donald Trump for his actions in the build-up to the riot and decried the Capitol riot as “an assault on our institutions of freedom.”