House Republicans investigating the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol said that after a thorough review of security footage in the days before the riot, there is no evidence to support Democrats’ claims of “reconnaissance” tours by Republican colleagues ahead of the attack, contradicting signals from the Jan. 6 Select Committee.
Illinois Republican Rep. Rodney Davis, ranking member on the Committee on House Administration, said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday that the “reconnaissance” tours claims are “baseless.”
“We have reviewed the security footage from the Capitol Complex during the relevant period preceding January 6, 2021, and we know it does not support these repeated Democrat accusations about so-called ‘reconnaissance’ tours,” Davis said in the letter, shared with the Washington Examiner.
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Republicans reviewed footage from security cameras in the Capitol complex and tunnels in the 48 hours before Jan. 6, 2021, to find evidence of “reconnaissance” tours, an aide said. After requests from Davis and others in the aftermath of the attack, Capitol Police made available to lawmakers thousands of hours of video footage, radio transmissions, and documents.
But the information is not available to the public. Davis asked Pelosi to change that.
“We demand that you release this footage immediately so that the American people can see the truth and judge for themselves why Democrats are so willing to mislead about the events of January 6,” he said in the letter.
The Republican assessment that there was no evidence of “reconnaissance tours” contradicts signals from the House select committee formed to investigate the Jan. 6 riot, and other Democrats.
Jan. 6 Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, told the Washington Post on the anniversary of the riot last month that the committee has “information that members hosted people who came to Washington on that day in their office.”
“As to whether or not those tours brought into giving people directions where Speaker Pelosi’s office would be, for instance, or Whip Clyburn’s office, or Leader Hoyer’s office, we’re just not sure,” Thompson said. “But we know there was member participation. And that’s part of the body of our work, to see whether or not we can connect the dots between those tours and the people who broke into the Capitol.”
Allegations of Republicans giving tours to rioters were led by New Jersey Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill. In a Facebook Live video on Jan. 13, 2021, she said that she saw “members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 — a reconnaissance for the next day.”
The same day, Sherrill and 33 other House Democrats signed a letter to Capitol Police requesting “an immediate investigation” into “an extremely high number of outside groups in the complex on Tuesday, January 5” allegedly witnessed by lawmakers and staff ahead of Jan. 6.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Capitol was closed to the public. “The visitors encountered by some of the Members of Congress on this letter appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day,” the letter said.
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Sherrill and the select committee did not respond to requests for comment about the Republican review of footage.
Davis was one of the five Republicans originally selected by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to be on the House select committee formed to investigate Jan. 6, but Republicans boycotted the committee after Pelosi vetoed McCarthy picks Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.
Read the full letter from Davis to Pelosi below:
