Republican Georgia Congressman Barry Loudermilk’s tour of the Capitol for visitors on the day before the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress appears to be unrelated to the attack, the Capitol Police has determined, but raises questions about why Loudermilk and the GOP members of the House Administration Committee lied repeatedly about it, the New York Times reports.

An investigation by Capitol Police did not link any of the people on Loudermilk’s tour to the attack, nor were they able to find information that would like the Congressman directly to people who attacked the Capitol.  After initially vehemently denying giving a tour prior to the attack, Loudermilk confessed that he gave a tour to constituents.  Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manager said that Loudermilk gave a tour of Rayburn and Cannon House Office Buildings, which are in the Capitol complex but did not tour the Capitol building itself.

The Republican members of the House Administration Committee, of which Loudermilk is a member, claimed in the months after the attack that they had independently reviewed video from Capitol security cameras and that no Republican member of Congress gave a tour of the Capitol complex.  They then amended that statement to include only the Capitol building; the Rayburn and Cannon Office Buildings were not breached during the attack. 

Democratic New Jersey Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, stated that she and her staff witnessed many unauthorized tours of the Capitol in the days prior to the January 6th attack, a time when the Capitol was closed due to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic.  The only people who could have authorized such tours were members of Congress.  In a letter to Capitol Police asking for an investigation, Sherrill and 34 Democratic Congressman stated that they had witnessed the tours.