The January 6 Committee released images and video today of Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) showing visitors around the Capitol complex on Jan. 5, 2021, saying he gave a “tour” of tunnels to 10 people. This includes areas like security checkpoints that are not usually, as the committee notes, “of interest” to tourists.
One of the people in the tour who Loudermilk reportedly took around was filmed the next day, on Jan. 6, shouting, “There’s no escape Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler. We’re coming for you.”
The Daily Dot was the first to report on Loudermilk’s real behavior in the run-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. After the committee requested Loudermilk’s testimony over possible tours, Loudermilk denied he’d been involved in any, then changed his story to say he’d met with a constituent family.
But in a radio interview unearthed by the Daily Dot, Loudermilk revealed that he’d met with nearly a dozen people on Jan. 5, all of who were planning on protesting the next day. Loudermilk was also essential in pushing conspiratorial beliefs up the Republican party after former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
In the letter released by the committee today, it states that Loudermilk walked people around spots in the Capitol complex that weren’t considered standard visitor locations.
“Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of
interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints. For example … an individual appearing to photograph a staircase in the basement of the Longworth House Office Building.”
According to the committee, some of the people Loudermilk took around were plotting violence on Jan. 6.
“The Select Committee has learned that some individuals you sponsored into the complex
attended the rally at the Ellipse on the morning of January 6, 2021. According to video recordings
from that day obtained by the Select Committee, the individual who appeared to photograph a
staircase in the Longworth House Office Building filmed a companion with a flagpole appearing
to have a sharpened end who spoke to the camera saying, ‘It’s for a certain person.’”
The person who made the video was also filmed stating on Jan. 6: “They got it surrounded. It’s all the way up there on the hill, and it’s all the way around, and they’re coming in, coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, even you, AOC.”
Loudermilk, for his part, stood by a statement from Capitol Police released this Wednesday that said the tunnels Loudermilk took people to did not lead to the actual Capitol building, and that they did not believe the behavior was suspicious.
In a statement released today, Loudermilk said the Jan. 6 Committee was “undermining” the Capitol Police by sharing this footage. He said the images show people taking picture of the Rayburn train, not doing reconnaissance, and that nothing in it was suspicious at all.
