Jan. 6 committee presses GOP lawmaker Loudermilk on Capitol tour he gave before insurrection

WASHINGTON – Armed with new surveillance photos, the Jan. 6 committee renewed its request Wednesday for information from a House Republican about a tour of the Capitol he gave visitors the day before the insurrectionist attack.

The Jan. 6 committee's request came a day after Republicans released a letter from U.S. Capitol Police saying it found nothing suspicious about the Jan. 5, 2021, tour led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga.

Loudermilk and his allies accused the committee of playing politics and unfairly seeking to implicate Republican lawmakers in a Jan. 6 plot.

"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," Loudermilk said in a statement.

Some committee members appear to disagree.

In a letter to Loudermilk, Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi,  said surveillance video showed that "individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.”

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The committee released surveillance photos and video of Loudermilk's guests, including clips of one of the tourists who was seen outside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, yelling threats to Democratic lawmakers and saying "we're coming for you." The committee did not specifically identify any of the people in the photos or videos.  

The committee's request is part of its probe into whether groups that stormed the Capitol conducted surveillance of the complex before the attack, which was designed to stop the counting of electoral votes that certified President Joe Biden's election win.

Some lawmakers noted that the U.S. Capitol was closed to tourists at the time Loudermilk showed around his guests, due to COVID restrictions.

"These are not normal tour routes, the Capitol was closed to tours," tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., one of two Republicans on the committee.

Committee members are in the midst of public hearings on their investigation of the attack and then-President Donald Trump's role in it.

The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Loudermilk touted the Capitol Police statement and denied giving "a tour of the Capitol." He said instead that "a small group visiting their congressman is in no way a suspicious activity."

In his statement after Thompson's letter, the Georgia Republican said: "No where 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."

Loudermilk also said he, his family, and his staff have received death threats over the committee's "false narrative."

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In his letter to Loudermilk, Thompson noted that the committee asked Loudermilk to provide information on May 19.

“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," Thompson wrote.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rep. Barry Loudermilk Capitol tour: Jan. 6 panel seeking more info