Members of a Jan. 5, 2021, tour led by U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia recorded parts of the U.S. Capitol complex “not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints,” according to the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.
“The behavior of these individuals during the Jan. 5, 2021, tour raises concerns about their activity and intent while inside the Capitol complex,” committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote in a letter Wednesday.
According to video released by the committee, at least one member of the tour was present outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump supporters breached the building in an effort to halt the Electoral College proceedings and prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.
In the video, the unidentified man on the tour films another person with an American flag with an apparent sharpened point, telling prominent Democratic lawmakers “we’re coming for you” while looking at the Capitol.
“They’re coming in, coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, even you, AOC,” the man says. “We’re coming to take you out and pull you out by your hairs. … When I get done with you, you’re going to need a shine on top of that bald head.”
Loudermilk has declined to meet with the committee and has given misleading statements attacking the request.
Tuesday, he shared a letter from U.S. Capitol Police that said the tour group did not appear in the Capitol itself, and Loudermilk blasted the “baseless accusation” made by the Jan. 6 committee, noting that “a small group visiting their congressman is in no way a suspicious activity.”
But the information released by the committee does not claim Loudermilk was in the Capitol with the tour group, and shows people on the tour photographing the tunnel leading from the Rayburn House Office Building to the Capitol, staircases and other parts of the Capitol complex.
On May 19, the Jan. 6 committee asked Loudermilk for more information May 19 about a tour he led “through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021.” In a fundraising email and video posted online May 20, Loudermilk said he was “in the crosshairs of the J6 committee” for taking a family with young children to lunch in one of the House office building.
In a statement released Wednesday, Loudermilk accused the committee of “doubling down on their smear campaign” saying that “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.”
This story comes to The Georgia Sun through a reporting partnership with GPB a non-profit newsroom focused on reporting in Georgia.
Source Material: Below is the letter the Jan. 6 Committee sent Loudermilk, including photos for you to look at yourself.
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