EXCLUSIVE: The House investigation into “what really happened” on January 6, 2021, is entering a “new phase,” Fox News Digital has learned, with Rep. Barry Loudermilk leading the charge and vowing to bring “the truth” to the American people.
Loudermilk, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, told Fox News Digital that his investigation, which began under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is expanding with the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“We’re entering a new phase,” he said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. “The speaker has committee whatever resources we need to move forward, and has basically tripled the size of our staff.”
Republican members of the Committee on House administration (from left to right) Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., and Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio (Committee on House Administration)
“We are investigating what really happened on January 6 and how were these people — whoever they were — how were they able to get into the Capitol? What was the security failure?” Loudermilk said, adding that the panel is also investigating “the actions of the Select Committee [on January 6] and how they conducted their investigation.”
“Because the American people have a right to know what happened,” Loudermilk said. “My main goal is to get the truth out there and give the American people the ability to make their own determination on this with facts — not with preconceived ideas or pre-determined narratives — but just the facts of what happened.”
Loudermilk told Fox News Digital that last Congress’ House Select Committee on January 6, led by Democrats, “went above and beyond the evidence to try to prove something that they wanted to be truth.”
Loudermilk said that panel “cherry-picked” evidence and “excluded evidence that did not support their narrative, which was that Trump and the Republicans are the ones who planned and carried out and assisted in the attacks on the Capitol.”
“But there isn’t evidence to support that so-called truth,” he said.
A scene from the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
“Look, I’m not here to vindicate anyone,” he said. “But we want the truth to prevail.”
While the attacks on the Capitol took place three years ago, Jan. 6 has become a major talking point and issue for the 2024 presidential election cycle.
Former President Trump has been charged out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Jan. 6 and the 2020 election. Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
And while the 2024 GOP frontrunner has never been charged with inciting insurrection, several states across the nation have attempted to use the 14th amendment to remove him from state ballots.
Meanwhile, President Biden’s first re-election campaign speech last week was focused on Jan. 6, and accused Trump of being a threat to democracy due to the Capitol riot, again claiming he incited the violence.
BIDEN MARKS THREE YEARS SINCE JAN. 6 BLASTING TRUMP, SAYING HE IS ‘TRYING TO STEAL HISTORY’
“It is imperative at this point because we do have a major election,” he said. “I am not trying to influence the election but it is important that the people are really informed.”
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 12: U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.). (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Loudermilk pointed to a Biden campaign commercial, using footage from Jan. 6.
“He’s using images of the gallows that was erected — that’s something we’ve been investigating. It was erected at 6 in the morning — how in the world did it stay up all day long? Right with Capitol Police there?” He asked. “That is something that at first sight, somebody should have been taking down.”
Loudermilk said that “regardless of who did the attack, how did these people get in?”
Loudermilk said he is investigating the “security failure.”
“We do know there was plenty of intelligence that there was going to be an attack on the Capitol. So Secret Service knew of it. The FBI knew of it. Department of Defense had intelligence. Homeland Security had intelligence. That intelligence was sent to the Capitol Police Intelligence Division—but it never got passed on any further. The chief did not know about it,” he explained.
“Now whether it was intentional suppression or if it was incompetence, there was a huge cover-up over that,” he continued. “We are looking at that, but from what we can tell, there were groups that were planning this attack on the Capitol.”
Loudermilk also said they have intelligence that there were federal agents embedded in the crowd, which he noted, is “not unusual for large gatherings.”
WASHINGTON DC – JUNE 16 The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including (from l to r) Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Liz Cheney (R-Wy) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill), held its third hearing on June 16, 2022 in Washington, DC. The committee, headed by Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.). (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“But our issue is, if a plainclothes law enforcement officer engaged in nefarious activities, which we have already proven there was one Metropolitan police officer who was plainclothes on duty and encouraged people to go to the Capitol — so that type of activity is very concerning to us,” he said.
But Loudermilk noted that federal officers “are not allowed on Capitol Hill unless they are invited by Capitol Police or the Capitol Police Board.”
“Were any of those federal officers here before the chief of police asked for mutual assistance?” He asked.
The House Jan. 6 committee released images from surveillance video of a U.S. Capitol tour conducted by Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Jan. 5, 2021. (Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol)
Meanwhile, Loudermilk said the term “optics” comes up “way too often in a lot of the communications.”
“People had a concern of the ‘optics’ from the Civil Defense unit to Capitol Police wearing riot gear — someone didn’t like that. I suspect it came from [then-Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s office,” he said. “We’re tracking that down. But they were told to leave their riot gear in buses — it doesn’t do any good. You don’t have time to tell people storming the Capitol, ‘hey, wait until we go get our defensive gear on.’”
“So the term ‘optics’ also comes up when it comes to the deployment of the National Guard,” he continued. “We have uncovered evidence that Trump was aware of the attack on the Capitol and did order the National Guard to be ready to deploy, so we’ll be coming out with that as well.”
A Texas man who reportedly fired a gun at police had just hours earlier surrendered to charges that he participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
As for the portion of the investigation focused on the now-closed House Select Committee on Jan. 6, Loudermilk said he was even “falsely accused” by the committee “of giving reconnaissance tours of the Capitol.” He called those claims “asinine,” but said that experience gave him “insight of how that committee was operating and I was able to see how they manipulated device, cherry-picked evidence, and even edited evidence in my case.”
Loudermilk said that the first phase of the investigation was “laying the groundwork.”
“The select committee was supposed to preserve all of these documents, all of the videos of depositions — what I expected, is when they handed all of the information over, was that we would have their entire database—that’s not what we got,” he explained. “We got boxes of about 2 million printed pages of documents just placed into boxes without any cataloging or categorization. We had about two terabytes of digital data.”
Separately, Loudermilk said members of that committee “took out liability insurance, meaning that they can’t be held liable for anyone that may have been defamed in their accusations or false reporting.”
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“It’s just interesting to me that they took out the liability insurance after the fact, if their reporting is so accurate, why would you be concerned about it?” Loudermilk asked. “
“The American people have the right to know the truth of what happened on January 6 and we have taken this from a very non-biased approach.”
