Dramatic new cell phone video obtained by CBS News shows rioters who had breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, being scolded by a Republican congressman who was barricaded inside the House Chamber during the assault.
The video was released this week to media by the Justice Department — at the request of NBC News — as part of the federal criminal proceeding for Capitol rioter Damon Beckley, who was convicted during a stipulated bench trial last February of one count each of obstructing an official proceeding and interfering with law-enforcement officers during a civil disorder in the Jan. 6 attack.
In the video, which runs about seven minutes, a mob is shown crowded outside the doors of the House Chamber, yelling at congressional members through what appears to be broken glass.
Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas interacts briefly with the rioters through the door.
“I’ve been in law enforcement in Texas for 30 years, and I’ve never seen people like this,” Nehls, who is masked, scolds the mob. Prior to joining Congress, Nehls had served as a sheriff in Fort Bend County, outside Houston.
“I’m ashamed,” he adds.
Justice Department
Then-Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, now a U.S. senator, stands directly behind Nehls during the exchange — but does not appear to address the mob — while law enforcement officers inside the chamber are shown standing just inside the door with guns trained at the rioters.
Nehls and Mullin eventually depart the area.
That same day, Nehls took to social media to write that he was “proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Capitol police barricading entrance to our sacred House chamber, while trying to calm the situation talking to protestors. What I’m witnessing is a disgrace. We’re better than this. Violence is NEVER the answer.”
House members had gathered to certify the results of the 2020 election when hundreds of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
Beckley, who was arrested by the FBI less than two weeks after the Capitol attack, is scheduled to be sentenced next month. Federal prosecutors have asked for a 37-month prison term.
Exactly three years since the Jan. 6 attack, nearly 1,200 people have so far been charged in connection with the Capitol riot, and more than 700 have pleaded guilty. According to investigators, 140 police officers were assaulted at the Capitol.
— Robert Legare contributed to this report.
