GOP Rep Loudermilk calls Jan 6 panel ‘smear campaign’ after it releases video of him in Capitol tour group

Republican Georgia Representative Barry Loudermilk has slammed the House Select Committee investigating January 6 for what he says is a “smear campaign” after a video was released showing him taking part in a group tour of the Capitol on 5 January 2021 – the day before the insurrection.

“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, releasing so-called evidence of a tour of the House Office Buildings, which I have already publicly addressed,” Mr Loudermilk said in a statement on Wednesday.

“As Capitol Police confirmed, nothing about this visit with constituents was suspicious. The pictures show children holding bags from the House gift shop, which was open to visitors, and taking pictures of the Rayburn train,” he added.

“This false narrative that the Committee and Democrats continue to push, that Republicans, including myself, led reconnaissance tours is verifiably false. Nowhere 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,” Mr Loudermilk said.

“Once again, the Committee released this letter to the press, and did not contact me. This type of behavior is irresponsible and has real consequences -- including ongoing death threats to myself, my family, and my staff,” he added.

The January 6 committee released video evidence which appears to show members of a tour group led by Mr Loudermilk photographing and recording “areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints”.

The new footage was made public as part of evidence provided to Mr Loudermilk along with a letter from select committee chairman Bennie Thompson renewing the panel’s request for Mr Loudermilk to give evidence in a voluntary interview with committee members and staff.

“Based on our review of surveillance video, social media activity, and witness accounts, we understand you led a tour group through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021. That group stayed for several hours, despite the complex being closed to the public on that day,” Mr Thompson wrote, adding that Capitol surveillance footage shot that day and obtained by the panel depicts “a tour of approximately ten individuals” led by Mr Loudermilk viewing “areas in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to tunnels leading to the US Capitol”.

The chairman also noted that the persons on the tour led by Mr Loudermilk took photographs and video of various hallways, stairways, and Capitol Police security checkpoints, and provided surveillance video screen grabs which depict the congressman leading the tour and standing by while a tour group member shot a photo of a staircase in the Longworth House Office Building.

Another photograph showed members of Mr Loudermilk’s group shooting photos or videos of the tunnel connecting the Rayburn House Office Building with the Capitol.

“The behavior of these individuals during the January 5, 2021 tour raises concerns about their activity and intent while inside the Capitol complex,” Mr Thompson wrote.

The new footage comes just a day after Mr Loudermilk claimed to have been exonerated of any wrongdoing by a review of surveillance footage by the Capitol Police.

Mr Loudermilk published a letter from Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger to House administration committee ranking member Rodney Davis, in which the police chief said his department could confirm that the tour group entered the Capitol complex via the Rayburn House Office Building at around 11am and was seen in the basements of the Cannon and Longworth buildings.

Mr Manger said the tour group of approximately 12-14 people never entered the tunnels leading to the US Capitol and added that there was “no evidence” that Mr Loudermilk led them into the Capitol itself.

While the videos and photos released by the panel do not show any of Mr Loudermilk’s group in the tunnels or in the Capitol itself, a tour of the areas they were seen in — including the entrance to the tunnel from the Rayburn building to the Capitol — would allow members to familiarise themselves with how to get between buildings quickly and find the tunnel to the Capitol.

Mr Loudermilk claimed that the photo of the tour group members taking photographs of the tunnel between the Rayburn building and the Capitol depicted “children holding bags from the House gift shop ... and taking pictures of the Rayburn train,” a tramway which members of Congress frequently use to traverse the distance between their office and the House for votes. However, the photo he referred to shows several adults — not children — holding up their phones as if to take photographs.