Select committee says GOP lawmaker led tour through Capitol complex day before Jan. 6 attack

The Jan. 6 select committee says it has reviewed evidence that reveals a Republican lawmaker, Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, gave a tour through the Capitol complex the day before a pro-Trump mob attacked.

“We believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021,” Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) wrote to Loudermilk.

Congressional investigators requested a meeting with Loudermilk next week.

The committee noted that Republicans on the House Administration Committee, who had previously reviewed security footage from that day, had publicly claimed that there were “no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on.” The GOP comments called into question allegations made by three dozen Democrats in the days after Jan. 6 that they observed suspicious, “unusually large” groups, perhaps led by Republican lawmakers or staffers, walking through the Capitol complex in the days preceding the attack.

No evidence had emerged to support that view since then, leading Republicans to criticize the allegations as baseless and in bad faith. Loudermilk led a group of Republicans in criticizing Democrats for accusing them of leading “reconnaissance tours” through the Capitol and filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee against the group of Democratic lawmakers.

The select committee noted that Loudermilk is a member of the House Administration Committee. And they said their review of the evidence “directly contradicts that denial.”