January 6th Committee reveals explosive new evidence about Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s 1/5 Capitol tour
When House Democrats revealed in early 2021 that they had evidence one or more House Republicans gave Capitol tours the day before the January 6th attack, they didn’t mention any names. This prompted various House Republicans to yell some variation of “not me,” and House Republican Barry Loudermilk even went so far as to file an ethics complaint against the Democrats for having floated such an accusation.
Weeks ago, the January 6th Committee revealed that it was in fact Loudermilk who had given a Capitol tour the day before the attack – but the committee didn’t show its evidence. Instead it allowed Loudermilk to panic and change his story several times, discrediting himself in the process.
Now the committee has released photographic evidence today, revealing that Loudermilk gave a January 5th Capitol tour to a double digit number of people, and that some members of the tour group made a point of photographing strategic things like stairwells and entry points. The committee also released video evidence showing that one of Loudermilk’s tour members was indeed outside the Capitol on January 6th, making violent threats against various political leaders.
The Select Committee renews request for information from Representative Barry Loudermilk.
In a letter to Loudermilk, Chair @BennieGThompson underscored the need to gather more info about certain individuals who were part of the tour through the Capitol complex on Jan 5, 2021. pic.twitter.com/G91zhuws4e
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 15, 2022
Surveillance footage shows a tour led by Loudermilk to areas in the House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to Capitol tunnels.
Individuals on the tour photographed/recorded areas not typically of interest to tourists: hallways, staircases and security checkpoints. pic.twitter.com/Rjhf2BTdbc
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 15, 2022
Loudermilk is now trying to push back by insisting that the tour was of the Capitol complex, not the actual Capitol building. He’s also playing victim by pointing out that the committee went public with this evidence without consulting him first. But none of this is going to help Loudermilk much, given that he pretty clearly gave a January 5th Capitol tour to an insurrectionist and then tried to obstruct the investigation.
It’s entirely possible that Loudermilk merely gave the tour because visitors from his district asked him to, and that he had no idea one of them was an insurrectionist, and that he was merely failing to pay attention to what the guy was photographing. But if that’s the case, then it was monumentally stupid of him to spend all this time trying to mislead investigators about it.
We’ll see where this goes. But there’s no way it’ll go well for Rep. Barry Loudermilk, whose insistence on misleading the January 6th investigation will play poorly for him in the court of public opinion and could even result in legal consequences in an actual court.
