The D.C. Corrections Department for a second time turned away two House lawmakers seeking to check the prison conditions of Jan. 6 defendants locked up in the troubled facility.
A jailer told Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Louie Gohmert, “We’re finished,” as they pressed for entry and were denied.
“What are you hiding?” asked Greene, who has helped to lead the effort to free the defendants. “As members of Congress, we have oversight over the district,” she said in a video she posted to Twitter.
She wrote on the platform, “Today @replouiegohmert and myself were denied entry to visit Louie’s constituent & conduct oversight at the DC jail. I’m extremely concerned about the treatment of J6 defendants & now ALL inmates being held there.”
Today @replouiegohmert and myself were denied entry to visit Louie’s constituent & conduct oversight at the DC jail.
I’m extremely concerned about the treatment of J6 defendants & now ALL inmates being held there.
Call the jail to demand oversight & transparency: 202.673.7316 pic.twitter.com/oK7YrvP96f
— Marjorie Taylor Greene ?? (@mtgreenee) November 3, 2021
U.S. Marshals this week transferred 400 prisoners out of the facility because of poor conditions.
They inspected the prisons because of complaints from some of the 120 Jan. 6 rioters. However, the rioters were not among those moved because their housing, the Central Treatment Facility, was not subpar, said the Marshals Service.
It was the second time the lawmakers were turned away.
Denied entry again to the DC Jail today, 1 day after the US Marshall’s report revealed that conditions in the DC Jail do NOT even meet “minimum standards of confinement.”
Due to this violation, they are moving 400 detainees, but NOT the pre-trial J6 detainees in CTF.#DCgulag pic.twitter.com/t8VCeahCzs
— Marjorie Taylor Greene ?? (@mtgreenee) November 3, 2021
Some 600 have been charged in the riots, and a handful have admitted guilt to entering the Capitol as Vice President Mike Pence was certifying the defeat of then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
A protester, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer, and several officers were roughed up in the clash.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has created a commission to investigate the events of the day, and several groups have established funds to help those charged.
