Rep. Barry Loudermilk faced scrutiny for leading a group around the Capitol Complex on January 5.
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- Capitol Police said that Rep. Barry Loudermilk gave a tour of the Capitol Complex on January 5.
- However, the group of 15 didn’t enter the US Capitol building, Chief J. Thomas Manger wrote.
- While Loudermilk’s tour had come under scrutiny, police said it was not suspicious.
The Capitol Police chief confirmed in a letter on Monday that GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia had given 15 people a tour of the Capitol Complex on the eve of the January 6 attack, adding that it wasn’t suspicious.
Chief J. Thomas Manger also said that the group didn’t enter the Capitol building, in his letter to Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the ranking Republican member of the House Administration committee.
“We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious,” Manger wrote.
Citing security footage, Manger said that Loudermilk had led a group of 12 people, which later grew to 15, through the Rayburn, Cannon, and Longworth buildings, but the group never appeared at “any tunnels that would have led them to the US Capitol.”
Manger added that Loudermilk split from the group while they spent five minutes at an exhibit in the Cannon building. The group was in the Capitol Complex from around 11 a.m. to just after 1 p.m., per Manger.
His report is the culmination of an investigation launched last month after Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherill of New Jersey and more than 30 of her colleagues published a letter asking Capitol Police to look into “suspicious behavior and access given to visitors” on January 5.
Republicans on the House Administration committee reviewed security footage, and an aide anonymously told The Hill: “There were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on.”
However, the House committee investigating the January 6 riot in March highlighted Loudermilk’s tour, asking him to come forward with information about it.
Loudermilk and Davis — who both serve on the administration committee — then released a statement saying that Loudermilk had led “a constituent family with young children” and that they never entered the Capitol building.
On the day of the attack itself, the Loudermilk gave an interview to Georgia radio station WBHF as he was “locked down in a secure place.” In the interview, he described the visitors on January 5 as “about a dozen people up here that wanted to come by and visit” his office.
He said they were “peaceful people” he had met at church. Loudermilk added that they were supporters of former President Donald Trump, had come to attend a rally, and implied that they had marched to the Capitol on January 6 but turned back.
“We’ve actually checked on them to make sure that they’re safe. When they saw what it was turning into, they immediately turned and went back down the mall to get away from the crowd here,” he told WBHF.
The New York Times previously reported that a document held by Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys group that stormed the Capitol, outlined a plan to send at least 50 people into each of seven government buildings.
While the document doesn’t specifically mention an attack on the Capitol, it closely resembles what happened during the riot, The Times reported.
Loudermilk shared Manger’s letter in a Tuesday tweet, writing: “The truth will always prevail. 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, 2022.”