January 6 committee investigating Capitol tour given by GOP lawmaker on the eve of the insurrection

By Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer and Zachary Cohen, CNN

The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has formally requested information from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Republican from Georgia, about a US Capitol tour he gave to visitors the day before rioters stormed the building.

In a letter to Loudermilk, the committee said they are looking for more information about the purpose of the tour and its participants.

“Based on our review of evidence in the Select Committee’s possession, we believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, wrote in the letter.

“The foregoing information raises questions to which the Select Committee must seek answers. Public reporting and witness accounts indicate some individuals and groups engaged in efforts to gather information about the layout of the U.S. Capitol, as well as the House and Senate office buildings, in advance of January 6, 2021,” they added.

A spokesperson for Loudermilk has not immediately returned a request for comment from CNN.

The letter comes more than a year after some House Democrats accused Republicans of providing tours in the days leading up to January 6 to individuals who later stormed the Capitol.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey, accused Republicans in the days after the insurrection of providing tours to people who then used the information they learned from their visit about the complex’s layout to aid in their attempt to interrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. But Sherrill didn’t name any Republicans.

Sherrill told a virtual town hall on January 12, 2021, that “members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on January 5th for reconnaissance for the next day.” The congresswoman never provided specific details or named which member of Congress gave the tours — even after widespread criticism from Republicans, demanding she provide evidence to back up her claim.

Several Republican members denied providing any such tours, and it was Loudermilk who filed an ethics complaint last year against Sherrill and 33 other Democrats, accusing them of making allegations about Republican-led reconnaissance tours without any evidence.

“A Member of Congress accusing another Member of committing a crime, without evidence, is morally reprehensible and a stain on this institution,” Loudermilk wrote in the complaint. “No Republican Member of Congress led any kind of ‘reconnaissance’ tours through the Capitol, proven by security footage captured by the U.S. Capitol Police.”

“My Republican colleagues and I will not sit by while Democrats accuse their colleagues of treason for political gain. This type of conduct must not be tolerated,” he wrote, urging the House Ethics Committee to “take quick and decisive action to ensure this never happens again.”

A spokesperson for the House Ethics Committee declined to comment on the status of the Loudermilk ethics complaint.

While Democrats making the accusations have yet to provide additional evidence to back up the claims, they have also refused to back away from the accusation.

According the letter, the committee has obtained evidence that Loudermilk’s tour has raised questions about it’s purpose.

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