January 6 Committee Releases Video Of Reconnaissance Tour Of Capitol That Capitol Police Dismissed

On Tuesday I saw reported, ‘No evidence’ GOP Rep. Loudermilk gave reconnaissance tours before Jan. 6: Capitol Police:

There is no evidence that GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk gave “reconnaissance” tours before the Jan. 6 attack, the U.S. Capitol Police Chief said in a letter to the House Administration Committee released Tuesday.

Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told Rep. Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican and the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee on Monday that no such tours were conducted and that Loudermilk, was giving a tour to constituents.

But on Wednesday, the Jan 6 committee released a video of GOP Rep. Loudermilk giving tour to people taking photos of tunnels:

The House select committee on January 6 released a video Wednesday of Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk giving a January 5 tour of the Capitol in which one man was captured snapping pictures of tunnels, hallways and security checkpoints.

That sure as hell sounds like a “reconnaissance” tour to me!

The committee said in the video’s introduction that it was the same man who made ‘detailed and disturbing threats against specific Members of Congress,’ according to Chair Bennie Thompson, in a letter sent to Loudermilk Wednesday, again asking him to cooperate [as a witness.]

‘There’s no escape Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler – we’re coming for you,’ the unidentified individual is heard saying as he filmed the swarm of Trump supporters outside the Capitol on January 6. ‘We’re coming to take you out.’

‘We’ll pull you out by your hairs. How about that Pelosi?’ he continued. ‘You may as well make yourself another appointment. When I get done with you. You’re going to need a shine up on top of that bald head,’ the man said.

The man’s video also shows him with a companion who had sharpened the tip of his flagpole and boasted, ‘It’s for a certain person.’

The committee’s video then shows a man – who they say is the one who was speaking – on the tour with Loudermilk the day before the attack, photographing the tunnel leading from the Rayburn House Office Building to the Capitol, a Hallway in the Longworth House Office Building and one of the security checkpoints.

The January 6 select committee has not publicly identified the man, though CNN reported Wednesday that he has been interviewed by members.

‘Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists including hallways, staircases and security checkpoints,’ Thompson’s letter to Loudermilk points out.

It also notes that the Capitol complex was closed to guests that day.

Thompson’s letter asks Loudermilk to ‘meet with the Select Committee at your earlier convenience.’

So far, the Republican from Georgia hasn’t spoken with the committee.

CNN adds, January 6 committee has footage that challenges Capitol Police findings over alleged role of GOP congressman:

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot has released footage that shows one of the individuals to whom GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia gave a tour on January 5 was outside the building during the insurrection screaming threats about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The video, portions of which were released by the committee on Wednesday, appears to show a man taking photos of tunnels, hallways and staircases within the Capitol complex while on a tour led by Loudermilk. The committee also released footage that appears to show that same man marching to the Capitol on January 6.

The committee has not identified the man, but sources say the committee has interviewed him. The committee has also not provided evidence that the man in the video entered the Capitol on January 6.

The video released by the committee seems to challenge the findings of US Capitol Police as detailed in a letter sent to Republican lawmakers this week, which said the department conducted a review of security footage from January 5 and did not observe any activities it deemed to be suspicious or consistent with a reconnaissance tour.

Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said the video shows Loudermilk “with a group of approximately 12 people which later grew to 15 people” walking through the Capitol office buildings on January 5. Manger also states that the group of visitors did not “appear in any tunnels that would lead them to the US Capitol.”

“On May 19, 2022, the Select Committee invited you to meet with us about evidence of a tour you provided on January 5, 2021. Based on our review of surveillance video, social media activity, and witness accounts, we understand you led a tour group through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021. That group stayed for several hours, despite the complex being closed to the public on that day,” the committee’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Wednesday in a new letter to Loudermilk.

“Surveillance footage shows a tour of approximately ten individuals led by you to areas in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to tunnels leading to the U.S. Capitol,” he added. “Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.”

Loudermilk said in a statement to CNN after the video’s release Wednesday, that “the Capitol Police already put this false accusation to bed, yet the Committee is undermining the Capitol Police and doubling down on their smear campaign, releasing so-called evidence of a tour of the House Office Buildings, which I have already publicly addressed.”

“As Capitol Police confirmed, nothing about this visit with constituents was suspicious. The pictures show children holding bags from the House gift shop, which was open to visitors, and taking pictures of the Rayburn train,” he added. “This false narrative that the Committee and Democrats continue to push, that Republicans, including myself, led reconnaissance tours is verifiably false. Nowhere 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.”

The committee first reached out to Loudermilk last month. The committee also indicated it had reviewed evidence that “directly contradicts” previous claims by Republican lawmakers who said security footage from the days before January 6 shows there were “no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on” at the US Capitol complex. Days after the attack, some Democrats began accusing Republicans of providing tours to individuals who later went on to storm the Capitol.

The committee has not explicitly accused Loudermilk of leading a reconnaissance tour but it did ask him to voluntarily answer questions about what is seen on the video released Wednesday. Loudermilk’s story, however, has repeatedly shifted in terms of the details of what happened on January 5.

As the Capitol riot was unfolding, Loudermilk spoke to a local Georgia radio station and said he met with “about a dozen” people from his home state the day prior on Capitol Hill who had traveled to Washington for the Trump rally that preceded the attack.

Loudermilk said during the interview that he hosted the people in his office and on the day of the riot, checked to make sure they were safe.

“We actually had about a dozen people up here that wanted to come and visit, we had them on our office. They definitely were, uh, peaceful people that we’d met at church … they were supporters of the President, they just wanted to be up here as if it was another rally,” he told Georgia radio station WBHF on January 6, 2021, from an undisclosed location as rioters were storming the Capitol.

“We’ve actually checked on them to make sure they were safe. They saw what it was turning into, they immediately turned and went back down the Mall to get away from the crowd here,” he added.

In the time since, Loudermilk has characterized the participants in this January 5 meeting as his constituents, including families with children.

House Republicans suggested they may release video they believe exonerates Loudermilk of any insinuation that he led a so-called “reconnaissance” tour the night before the riot.

Are Republicans going to say that this surveillance video does not show what it purports to show? Reminder: the committee has already interviewed the individual in the surveillance video. They  already know what this insurrectionist had to say.

And what’s up with the Capitol Police? It appears that they have some explaining to do to the January 6 Committee.

A “reconnaissance” tour of the Capitol tunnels is relevant to this reporting. Oath Keepers intended to ‘turn on the gas’ while lawmakers were in tunnels photographed Jan. 5 by Capitol tourists:

Right-wing extremists charged in the U.S. Capitol riot threatened to “gas” lawmakers in tunnels where Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) led a tour the previous day.

The Georgia Republican led a group of 15 individuals later identified by police as constituents on a tour of the Capitol complex, where one participant took photos of hallways, staircases and tunnels, and that same man was shown on video from Jan. 6 shouting threats against individual Democratic lawmakers.

[C]onspiracy charges filed shortly after the riot showed a group of three Oath Keepers were particularly interested in lawmakers’ movements in the tunnels underneath the Capitol complex, and one of them, Thomas Edward Caldwell, allegedly received a Facebook message about them.

“All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in,” reads the message. “Turn on gas.”

Caldwell also received another message on the topic, according to an affidavit that replicates spelling errors in the original statement.

“Tom all legislators are down in the Tunnels 3floors down,” the message reads. “Do like we had to do when I was in the core start tearing oit florrs go from top to bottom.”

The Jan. 6 committee noted on Wednesday that the tour had visited “entrances to Capitol tunnels.”

“Individuals on the tour photographed/recorded areas not typically of interest to tourists: hallways, staircases and security checkpoints,” the committee tweeted.

There is currently no evidence that the people who went on the tour were involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Yes, but was video/photographs taken on the tour shared with those who did enter the Capitol on January 6? The January 6 Committee knows the answer to this question because they have interviewed the man in the surveillance video. Rep. Loudrmilk may not know the answer.

By the way, those conspiracy charges show that the Oath Keepers and their compatriots The Proud Boys, all charged with seditious conspiracy, planned to kill multiple members of Congres in carrying out Donald Trump’s coup d’etat. Hanging Vice President Mike Pence was just icing on the cake. You should be shocked an outraged.