It seems the January 6th House Select Committee is officially done with the “f*ck around” portion of their investigation into the infamous Capitol insurrection and has now fully moved on to the “find out” part.
The House Panel has now set its sights on Georgia GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk.
Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson sent a fiery letter to Loudermilk recently, letting the Republican lawmaker know that they are in possession of evidence that directly contradicts his and other GOPers’ claims that lawmakers in the party did not give conveniently-timed Capitol tours to individuals or groups just days before the attack, that could have given some of the rioters an advantage during the siege.
“Based on our review of evidence in the Select Committee’s possession, we believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021,” Rep. Thompson wrote in the blistering letter.
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The letter, which also featured a signature from Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, went on to read, “The foregoing information raises questions to which the Select Committee must seek answers. Public reporting and witness accounts indicate some individuals and groups engaged in efforts to gather information about the layout of the U.S. Capitol, as well as the House and Senate office buildings, in advance of January 6, 2021.”
“In response to those allegations, Republicans on the Committee on House Administration—of which you are a Member—claimed to have reviewed security footage from the days preceding January 6th and determined that ‘[t]here were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on.’ However, the Select Committee’s review of evidence directly contradicts that denial,” the Committee goes on to state in the letter to the Republican lawmaker.
The House Panel proposed a meeting during the week of May 23 in the letter sent to Loudermilk.
CNN notes in their report on the development, “The letter comes more than a year after some House Democrats accused Republicans of providing tours in the days leading up to January 6 to individuals who later stormed the Capitol. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey, accused Republicans in the days after the insurrection of providing tours to people who then used the information they learned from their visit about the complex’s layout to aid in their attempt to interrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.”
On Jan. 12, 2021, Sherrill claimed that she personally saw several members of Congress leading groups of multiple people through the United States Capitol building on a “reconnaissance” tour on the 5th of January, just one day before Donald Trump’s rabid supporters would attack and siege the Capitol with Congress inside.
Suffice it to say, these public hearings are gonna be damn good.
Featured image via Flickr/Trump White House Archives