- The Jan 6 committee released footage of GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk leading a Capitol complex tour the day before the attack.
- One person on the tour returned to the Capitol grounds the next day, making threats against several lawmakers.
- "When I get done with you, you're going to need a shine on top of that bald head," the man said of Pelosi.
The January 6 committee released video footage on Wednesday showing Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia leading a tour of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021, the day before a mob of former President Donald Trump's supporters swarmed the building.
One of the individuals on the tour returned the following day, and can be heard in the released video making threats against several Democratic lawmakers including now-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
"They got it surrounded. It's all the way up there on the hill, and it's all the way around, and they're coming in, coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, even you, AOC," the man says in the video released by the committee. "We're coming to take you out and pull you out by your hairs."
The footage also shows a man with a flagpole "appearing to have a sharpened end," according to the committee. "That's for somebody special, somebody special," the man says.
The video also shows photos taken by members of the tour, including a photo of Nadler's office plaque.
"When I get done with you, you're going to need a shine on top of that bald head," the rally attendee also says, referring to Pelosi.
The committee's video also shows a member on the tour group took photos of lawmaker's headshots and of Nadler's office.
The release of the footage comes after a day after Republican Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois released a letter from US Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger that said that the police force did not "consider any of the activities we observed [on the video] as suspicious."
"So they were there for the rally at the Ellipse," Loudermilk told Roll Call on Tuesday, referring to the members of his tour. He added that "none at all" were on the grounds of the Capitol the following day, a claim now contradicted by the video footage.
In a letter sent to Loudermilk on Wednesday, committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi once again asked the Georgia Republican to speak with the committee while referencing the footage.
"Surveillance footage shows a tour of approximately ten individuals led by you to areas in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to tunnels leading to the U.S. Capitol," he wrote. "The behavior of these individuals during the January 5, 2021 tour raises concerns about their activity and intent while inside the Capitol complex.
"Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints," Thompson also noted.
The committee had previously asked the Georgia Republican to speak with the committee about the tour, but had been rebuffed.
In the days after the January 6 attack, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and over 30 of her colleagues sent a letter to Capitol Police asking for an investigation into "suspicious behavior and access given to visitors" on January 5. The congresswoman cited a seeming resemblance between the visitors and the rioters who attacked the complex the following day.
But Republicans on the Committee on House Administration later said they had reviewed security camera footage covering the Capitol complex in the days before the attack, and denied that there had been any tours.
"There were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on," a Republican aide anonymously told The Hill in February. "There's nothing in there remotely fitting the depiction in Mikie Sherrill's letter."
But the video released by the committee shows a few members of the tour were in fact wearing MAGA hats, contradicting the aide's claim.
Loudermilk also previously led an ethics complaint against the Democrats who had signed onto Sherrill's letter, calling the allegations "morally reprehensible and a stain on this institution."
Rep. Loudermilk's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Ben Kamens, a Democratic staffer on Capitol Hill who worked for Democratic Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey at the time, said on Twitter that he'd witnessed the group in the Capitol complex without an escort on the afternoon of January 5.
—Ben Kamens (@BeeKamens) June 15, 2022