WASHINGTON — The January 6th Committee released surveillance footage Wednesday it says shows a group taking photographs and videos of areas "not typically of interest to tourists" — including security checkpoints — while being escorted through two House office buildings the day before the Capitol riot.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), who led the group for at least part of the tour through the Rayburn and Cannon House Office buildings on Jan. 5, has said the 10-15 people in the group were constituents. He has denied any wrongdoing and described the release of the video as a "smear campaign" by the committee. On Wednesday afternoon, Loudermilk released audio of what he said were death threats he has received since the committee's original letter to him in May.
The surveillance video appears to show individuals recording hallways, staircases and security checkpoints in the lower levels of one of the buildings. Both buildings, which are used by members of Congress and their staffs, have tunnels connecting to U.S. Capitol Building — although Capitol Police said in a statement earlier this week there's no evidence any of the members of Loudermilk's group went into the tunnels. Members of Congress were evacuated through those same tunnels on Jan. 6 during the assault on the Capitol.
The Rayburn and Cannon buildings were also identified as "targeted buildings" in a plan, published Wednesday in a court filing, allegedly found on Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio's phone. The document, titled "1776 Returns," called for the occupation of eight buildings in or near the Capitol on Jan. 6 and the presentation of a list of demands to lawmakers, among them: "No Trump, No America." It's unclear whether any portion of the plan to occupy the "targeted buildings" was actually executed on Jan. 6, and there is no allegation any members of the Jan. 5 tour group were associated with the Proud Boys or any other organization.
At least one individual in the tour group did join the crowd the following day at the Ellipse for former President Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" speech, according to the committee. While there, they say he recorded a companion wielding a sharpened flagpole while saying, "It's for a certain person." Later in the video, the committee said, the man himself can be heard making threatening statements toward Democratic members of Congress.
"There's no escape, Pelosi. Schumer. Nadler. We're coming for you. We're coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler, even you, AOC - we're coming to take you out," the man is heard saying. "Pull you out by your hair. How about that, Pelosi? Might as well go make yourself another (hair) appointment. When I get done with you, you're gonna need a shine up on that bald head."
None of the individuals who took part in the tour led by Loudermilk have been identified as defendants in any criminal cases stemming from the assault on the Capitol.
On Monday, United States Capitol Police confirmed that Loudermilk led a group through parts of two House office buildings on Jan. 5, 2021, but that officers at the time didn’t deem it suspicious. The Capitol was closed for public tours at the time because of COVID-19.
Loudermilk released a letter Tuesday morning through social media. The letter, addressed to Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) – the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration – came in response to a request by Davis last week for Capitol police to review footage from Jan. 5 “related to a visit by constituents of Representative Barry Loudermilk.” Davis’ request was itself a response to a May 19 letter from the January 6th Committee about a tour Loudermilk may have led.
“The truth will always prevail,” Loudermilk wrote in a tweet with the USCP letter attached. “As I’ve said since the Jan. 6 Committee made their baseless accusation about me to the media, I never gave a tour of the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, and a small group visiting their congressman is in no way a suspicious activity. Now the Capitol Police have confirmed this fact.”
The committee’s May 19 letter did not accuse Loudermilk of leading a tour through the U.S. Capitol Building itself, but rather said it had information Loudermilk led a group through “parts of the Capitol complex.” The complex includes the grounds and 20 buildings, among them the Rayburn and Cannon House Office buildings. According to the USCP statement, footage shows Loudermilk did lead “a group of approximately 12 people which later grew to 15 people” through parts of the Rayburn Building, where Loudermilk’s office is, and the Cannon Building, which houses a series of exhibits from the House Collection in its basement.
It was unclear from the USCP letter how long Loudermilk was with the group. The department’s timeline said the tour began at approximately 11 a.m. at the Rayburn Building when the group met with a congressional staffer. The tour continued through at least 1 p.m. at the Cannon Building. At some point, while the group was looking at the exhibits in the building’s basement, Loudermilk separated from the group.
“There is no evidence that Representative Loudermilk entered the U.S. Capitol with this group on January 5, 2021,” Capitol Police said in its letter Monday.
Capitol Police said the group also never appeared in any tunnels that would have led them to the Capitol, and that those tunnels were posted with officers who would have denied access to anyone not in the presence of a member of Congress. Public tours were suspended across the Capitol complex on Jan. 5, as they had been since March 11, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the publication of the committee's original letter in May, Loudermilk said he has received
Concerns about possible tours of the Capitol drew significant attention in the wake of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building. In the week after the assault, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) called the alleged tours “a reconnaissance for the next day” (the Jan. 6 committee’s May 19 letter did not accuse Loudermilk of leading a reconnaissance tour). Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) also claimed to have personally witnessed tours of the Capitol.
"In the lead up to Jan. 6, what I witnessed was members of the public, people who had no business being in the Capitol during the shutdowns, milling about in the office buildings," Spanberger said. "The way that these individuals would have entered the Capitol in the first place would have been with a member of Congress making that possible.”
Loudermilk, a U.S. Air Force veteran and former member of both chambers of the Georgia State Legislature, was one of more than 120 Republicans to sign an amicus brief contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election and voted on Jan. 6 to object to the certification of Electoral College votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania. In a December 2020 statement, he said he had “reasonable and significant doubt” that the electors from his own state of Georgia “actually reflect the true will of the people.”