The scene is reminiscent of some heist movies and series like Ocean’s Eleven or The Money Heist. The commission of inquiry into the assault on the Capitol published, Wednesday, June 15, disturbing images of a visit carried out under the leadership of the elected Republican of Georgia, Barry Loudermilk, the day before the attack of January 6, 2021 .
The video shows people presented as participants in the assault, taking photos of the stairwells and underground passages of the Capitol complex. The latter is made up of twenty buildings and facilities, including the offices of the House of Representatives and the Senate, mostly connected by tunnels. The commission suspects the visitors of having carried out, on this occasion, location scouting in anticipation of the next day’s events.
In addition to the surveillance video, the commission released footage of a man walking toward the Capitol on Jan. 6, whom it identified as one of the tour participants who took pictures from inside. of the complex the day before the attack.
“We come to get you out of there and pull you by the hair”
Other images show the man near the Capitol, making threats against Democrats, including Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, and New York elected officials Jerrold Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).
“They’re coming and won’t let go of you, Pelosi, Nadler, even you, AOCsays the man in the video released by the commission. We’re coming to get you out of there and pull you by the hair. When I’m done with you, you can polish that bald head. »
The commission did not say whether the man later entered the Capitol with the assailants, or whether he was prosecuted. While some 800 people were accused of breaking into the building or assaulting police officers, thousands more protesters were outside the building or in the grounds of the National Mall (which is stretches from the Washington Monument to the Capitol) and were not guilty of violence.
In a letter to Mr. Loudermilk on Wednesday, elected Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, chairman of the so-called “January 6” commission, said the locations photographed during the visit “generally not of interest to tourists, such as corridors, stairways and security checkpoints”. Another member of the commission, Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, claimed in a tweet : “These are not normal tour routes, the Capitol was closed to tours. »
Capitol police deny commission charges
Mr. Loudermilk has not been subpoenaed and there is no indication that he knew that any of the participants in his visit were outside the Capitol the following day. The Republican defended himself in a press releaseclaiming that the commission “destabilizes the Capitol Police”. He noted that none of the places visited had been defaced on January 6. “As confirmed by Capitol Police, nothing about this visit with voters was suspicious,” said Mr. Loudermilk. “This false narrative that the commission and Democrats continue to tell that Republicans, myself included, conducted reconnaissance tours, is patently false”Mr. Loudermilk said in his statement.
In a letter sent on Monday to the Republicans on the House Administration Committee, of which Mr. Loudermilk is a member, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger defended the elected official. According to him, about 15 people took part in the visit and Mr. Loudermilk was only able to show them certain parts of the mecca of American democracy, the heart of which is closed to visitors due to the pandemic. The group also walked through one of the buildings without the congressman, Mr. Manger said.
“There is no evidence that Mr. Loudermilk entered the U.S. Capitol with this group on January 5, 2021,” Mr. Manger said. “We train our officers to be alert to people carrying out surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any activity we have observed to be suspicious. »
Republicans on the House Administration Committee previously said they reviewed security footage from Jan. 5 and said there was no “no tours, no large groups, no one with “Make America Great Again” hats [le slogan de Donald Trump]. »
But Mr Thompson and Wyoming Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney, who co-chairs the House committee, said last month that their review of the evidence “directly contradicts this disclaimer”.