WASHINGTON – A man who toured the Capitol complex with a Republican MP the day before the January 6, 2021 attack, later marched on the building while threatening President Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats, the House of Representatives committee said Wednesday. investigating the attack. .
The panel released a video of a tour of parts of the Capitol complex conducted by Georgia’s Barry Laudermilk, a Republican, the day before the violence. During the tour – which lasted several hours, although the complex was closed to the public at the time – he was seen with the group entering three different office buildings and approaching the entrances to tunnels leading to the Capitol.
Tourists photographed and recorded areas of the complex that “are not usually of interest to tourists, including corridors, staircases and checkpoints,” the commission said.
The video released by the committee also includes footage apparently taken by a man marching to the Capitol on January 6, and can be heard saying, “There is no salvation, Pelosi, Sumer, Nadler. We are coming for you. ”
A commission aide said investigators had learned that the voice came from a man seen in surveillance footage from Mr Loudermilk’s tour, who was taking a picture of a staircase in the Capitol complex.
“The behavior of these people during the tour on January 5, 2021 raises concerns about their activities and intentions while in the Capitol complex,” wrote Benny Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the committee, in a letter to Mr. Loudermilk, looking for a second time to interview him.
The video is accused of accusations made by some Democrats in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol attack, and that a House House committee has since hinted: Republican members of Congress have effectively made it possible for some rebels to study the complex before their violent rampage.
Review the topics of the hearings of the House of Representatives committee on 6 January
Capitol police have been investigating the allegations, and on Monday the force released a letter in which its chief said Mr Loudermilk’s tour appeared to be harmless.
“We are training our employees to be vigilant about people conducting surveillance or intelligence, and we do not consider any of the activities we monitor to be suspicious.” Thomas Manger, Capitol Police Chief, in a letter to Mr. Tour of Loudermilk. Capitol police said Wednesday they could not comment further, but “cooperated widely” with the commission.
In a statement Wednesday, Mr Loudermilk said the commission was involved in a defamation campaign against him, causing his family and staff to receive death threats.
“As Capitol police have confirmed, nothing in this voter visit was suspicious,” he wrote. “The photos show children holding bags from the House’s gift shop, which was open to visitors, and taking pictures of the Rayburn train.”
But the committee said several people who took part in Mr Loudermilk’s tour attended President Donald J. Rally. Trump on the Ellipse on the morning of January 6.
The man shown in the video is heard threatening senior Democrats, including Senator Chuck Schumer, the leader of the majority, and representatives Gerold Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all from New York.
“We enter like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, Sumer – even for you, AOC,” he said as he recorded the crowd supporting Trump approaching the Capitol. “We’re coming to get you out and pull you by the hair.
“When I’m done with you, you’ll need shine on your bald head,” he added.
Earlier in the video, he walks up to a second man carrying a pointed flagpole and says, “This is for a certain person,” as he makes a pushing motion.
They do not directly claim that someone escorted by Mr Loudermilk later attacked the Capitol. But they suggested they had evidence that he had taken visitors around the complex. They wrote that their review contradicted Republican denials that security camera footage showed no such tours.
Chief Manger said Capitol police reviewed surveillance footage of the complex on Jan. 5 and noticed Mr Laudermilk touring about 15 people who visited the Rayburn House office building and the Cannon House office building.
His letter described the tour as a “voter visit” and noted that the group had not entered the Capitol or its tunnel system.
At that time, tours of the Capitol were limited due to pandemic restrictions.
In a statement last month, Mr Laudermilk admitted that he had brought the components to parts of the Capitol complex – though not the Capitol itself – the day before the riot, but said the visit was harmless.
“A compound family with young children meeting with a member of Congress in the House’s office buildings is not a suspicious group or a ‘reconnaissance tour,'” Mr Loudermilk wrote, adding: “No place where the family has gone to 5th, was not drilled on the 6th, the family did not enter the Capitol on the 6th, and none of that family was investigated or charged in connection with January 6th.
Shortly after the uprising, more than 30 Democrats joined Representative Mickey Cheryl of New Jersey in a request for an investigation by senior Capitol security officials and Capitol police into what Mrs. Cheryl called “suspicious behavior” and access to visitors to the Capitol complex. the day before the riot.
Ms. Cheryl said she knew of members of Congress who were doing “reconnaissance” tours before the attack. Republicans have vehemently denied the allegations.
Mr Loudermilk, in particular, condemned the allegations and joined an ethical complaint against the Democrats who raised them.
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