Jan. 6 committee releases video supporting Mikie Sherrill's reconnaissance tours claims

A claim from Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-Montclair, that members of Congress helped Jan. 6 rioters find their way through the Capitol was given new credence by the House select committee on Wednesday, when the bipartisan panel released a video that appears to show Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk offering a tour on Jan. 5, 2021, and alleged that one of the men in the group followed the mob to the building the next day.

The committee released security footage of Loudermilk's tour, which committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., alleged in a letter to Loudermilk shows the same man taking part in the march on the Capitol the next day, USA TODAY reported.

In the portions of the video taken from Loudermilk's tour, a man can be seen using his cellphone to photograph "areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases and security checkpoints,” the video says.

Those shots are juxtaposed with a Facebook Live video, said to be shot by the same man, as he and a throng of angry protesters approach the legislative complex.

"There's no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler," the man says, referring to prominent Democratic lawmakers, as he marches toward the building, soon to be the site of a bloody siege that left several dead and others battered and bloody, as President Donald Trump's supporters attempted to disrupt the procedural certification of Joe Biden's presidential win.

"We're coming to take you out," he says in a later clip, and he shows a man marching near him with a sharpened flagpole, who remarks, "This is for certain people."

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On Wednesday, Sherrill released a statement saying, "The video evidence released today by the bipartisan January 6th committee, combined with the constantly shifting narrative and misdirection from [Barry Loudermilk], calls into question [his] dedication to our common oath as members of Congress."

Responding to Thompson's letter, the Georgia lawmaker defended his actions, saying, "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 [for taking part in the siege]."

Loudermilk also touted a letter from Capitol Police, who reviewed the same footage and found nothing suspicious about the tour.

In an appearance on Fox News, Loudermilk told Laura Ingraham that there were "hundreds of people in the Capitol complex" and cited the fact that the building's gift shop was open due to the plethora of visitors.

Just less than a week after the attempt to disrupt the certification of votes for Biden, Sherrill made the explosive claim during an address to constituents on Facebook that she had seen fellow members of Congress leading "reconnaissance tours" through the complex the day before.

Nicholas Katzban is a breaking news reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.

Email: katzban@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @nicholaskatzban 

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Jan. 6 committee: Barry Loudermilk video backs Mikie Sherrill claim