Jan. 6 panel asks Georgia GOP lawmaker to testify about Capitol tour

May 19th, 2022

FILE - Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Georgia, listens to a speaker at a press conference, May 4, 2021, in Marietta, Ga. Loudermilk of Georgia is the latest GOP lawmaker to be asked to cooperate with the House select committee probing the violence that took place on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Ron Harris, File)

The congressional committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection sent a letter Thursday to a House Republican in an effort to learn more about a tour he led of the building the day before the deadly attack.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia is the latest GOP lawmaker to be asked to cooperate with the House select committee probing the violence that took place on Jan. 6, 2021.

“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,” Reps Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, the chairman and vice-chairwoman of the committee, said in a letter Thursday.

“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 wrote.

The voluntary request to Loudermilk comes a week after the committee, comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans, subpoenaed five of their Republican colleagues, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The decision to issue subpoenas to McCarthy, R-Calif., and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama was a dramatic show of force by the panel, which has already interviewed nearly 1,000 witnesses and collected more than 100,000 documents as it investigates the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries.

The five Republicans, all of whom have repeatedly downplayed the investigation’s legitimacy, have yet to say whether they will comply.

In total, the committee has now requested cooperation from at least eight lawmakers it believes have information crucial to the planning and execution of the attack and former President Donald Trump’s potential role in inciting it.