On the eve of thousands of rioters storming the halls of Congress, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) gave a tour of two Capitol complex office buildings, which Capitol Police are now saying was innocuous.
Loudermilk’s Jan. 5, 2021, tour drew scrutiny following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and prompted the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot to examine the matter to ensure he was not assisting rioters to conduct “reconnaissance.”
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“There is no evidence that Representative Loudermilk entered the U.S. Capitol with this group on January 5, 2021,” Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger wrote in a letter to Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), ranking member on the House Administration Committee. “We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious.”
Upon an extensive review of security footage, police concluded he led a tour of about 15 people to the Rayburn House Office Building and the Cannon House Office Building, which are positioned to the side of the Capitol. It turns out his tour did not enter the Capitol building itself — he was simply showing his constituents around the complex, police said.
Loudermilk commended the Capitol Police’s finding as vindication.
“The truth will always prevail. As I’ve said since the Jan. 6 Committee made their baseless accusation about me to the media, I never gave a tour of the Capitol on Jan 5, 2021, and a small group visiting their congressman is in no way a suspicious activity. Now the Capitol Police have confirmed this fact,” he tweeted.
🚨BREAKING🚨: The truth will always prevail. As I’ve said since the Jan. 6 Committee made their baseless accusation about me to the media, I never gave a tour of the Capitol on Jan 5, 2021… pic.twitter.com/qBoLcmxnYQ
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) June 14, 2022
Although the Jan. 6 panel did not indicate anyone who had accompanied Loudermilk on his tour breached the Capitol the following day, the committee pressed Loudermilk to answer questions about the situation last month.
Republicans on the House Administration Committee claimed they had reviewed surveillance footage and concluded “there were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on,” the Washington Post reported. But Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the chairman and vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 committee, seemingly contradicted that in a letter to Loudermilk last month.
“Public reporting and witness accounts indicate some individuals and groups engaged in efforts to gather information about the layout of the U.S. Capitol, as well as the House and Senate office buildings” prior to the Jan. 6 riot, they wrote, per the Associated Press.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to a representative for the Jan. 6 committee for comment. The Jan. 6 committee held its second public hearing of the year on Monday and postponed its third hearing from Wednesday to Thursday.
Loudermilk, who voted against impeaching former President Donald Trump, lambasted the events of Jan. 6 as “an assault on our institutions of freedom.”
