Jan. 6 Panel Says Capitol Marcher Toured With G.O.P. Congressman

WASHINGTON — A person who toured the Capitol advanced with a Republican lawmaker the day earlier than the Jan. 6, 2021, assault later marched on the constructing whereas making threats towards Speaker Nancy Pelosi and different distinguished Democrats, the House committee investigating the assault mentioned on Wednesday.

The panel launched surveillance video of a tour of elements of the Capitol advanced performed by Representative Barry Loudermilk, Republican of Georgia, a day earlier than the violence. During the tour — which lasted a number of hours, regardless of the advanced being closed to the general public on the time — he’s seen with the group getting into three totally different workplace buildings and approaching the entrances to tunnels resulting in the Capitol.

Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the advanced which are “not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases and security checkpoints,” the committee mentioned.

The video that the committee released additionally featured footage apparently taken by an individual who’s marching towards the Capitol on Jan. 6, and could be heard saying, “There’s no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler. We’re coming for you.”

A committee aide mentioned investigators had realized that the voice was that of the person seen within the surveillance footage of Mr. Loudermilk’s tour taking {a photograph} of a staircase within the Capitol advanced.

“The behavior of these individuals during the Jan. 5, 2021, tour raises concerns about their activity and intent while inside the Capitol complex,” Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the committee, wrote in a letter to Mr. Loudermilk, searching for for a second time to interview him.

The video will get at a cost that some Democrats leveled within the speedy aftermath of the assault on the Capitol and that the House committee investigating it has hinted at ever since: that Republican members of Congress successfully made it attainable for a number of the rioters to review the structure of the advanced earlier than their violent rampage.

The Capitol Police have investigated these claims, and on Monday, the power released a letter by which its chief mentioned Mr. Loudermilk’s tour gave the impression to be innocuous.

“We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed to be suspicious,” J. Thomas Manger, the chief of the Capitol Police, wrote in a letter about Mr. Loudermilk’s tour. On Wednesday, Capitol Police mentioned they might not provide further feedback however had “cooperated extensively” with the committee.

In a press release Wednesday, Mr. Loudermilk mentioned the committee was participating in a smear marketing campaign towards him, inflicting his household and employees to obtain dying threats.

“As Capitol Police confirmed, nothing about this visit with constituents was suspicious,” he wrote. “The pictures show children holding bags from the House gift shop, which was open to visitors, and taking pictures of the Rayburn train.”

But the committee mentioned that a number of individuals who participated in Mr. Loudermilk’s tour attended President Donald J. Trump’s rally on the Ellipse on the morning of Jan. 6.

The man featured within the video is heard threatening prime Democrats, together with Senator Chuck Schumer, the bulk chief, and Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all of New York.

“We’re coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, Schumer — even you, A.O.C.,” he says as he data the pro-Trump throng approaching the Capitol. “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 up on top of that bald head,” he provides.

Earlier within the video, he walks alongside a second man who carries a flagpole with a sharpened finish and says, “It’s for a certain person,” whereas making a jabbing movement.

They didn’t immediately assert that anybody Mr. Loudermilk escorted had later attacked the Capitol. But they urged that that they had proof that he had led guests across the advanced. They wrote that their evaluate contradicted Republicans’ denials that closed-circuit safety digicam footage confirmed no such excursions had taken place.

Chief Manger mentioned Capitol Police had reviewed surveillance footage of the advanced on Jan. 5 and noticed Mr. Loudermilk main a tour of about 15 folks, who visited the Rayburn House Office Building and the Cannon House Office Building.

His letter described the tour as a “visit by constituents” and famous that the group didn’t enter the Capitol or its tunnel system.

Tours of the Capitol have been restricted on the time due to pandemic restrictions.

In a press release final month, Mr. Loudermilk conceded that he had introduced the constituents into elements of the Capitol advanced — although not the Capitol itself — the day earlier than the riot, however he mentioned the go to was innocent.

(*6*) Mr. Loudermilk wrote, including: “No place that the family went on the 5th was breached on the 6th, the family did not enter the Capitol grounds on the 6th, and no one in that family has been investigated or charged in connection to Jan. 6.”

Shortly after the riot, greater than 30 Democrats joined Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey in requesting an investigation by the highest Capitol safety officers and the Capitol Police into what Ms. Sherrill referred to as “suspicious behavior” and entry given to guests to the Capitol advanced the day earlier than the riot.

Ms. Sherrill mentioned she knew of members of Congress who had given “reconnaissance” excursions forward of the assault. Republicans vehemently denied the accusations.

Mr. Loudermilk, particularly, denounced the costs and joined an ethics grievance towards the Democrats who made them.