- A Capitol Police officer appeared to have a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion at a checkpoint.
- A concerned parliamentary aide has taken a photo and the official is being investigated.
- The Protocols of the Sages of Zion is a centuries-old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
A Capitol Police officer was suspended on Monday after a Capitol employee photographed a printed copy of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion at a security checkpoint inside Congress, according to The Washington Post.
A congressional aide spotted the infamous anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on the table near a checkpoint, photographed the document and shared it with The Post. The checkpoint was near a 24-hour entrance to the Longworth House Office Building.
Acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman told the Post that the policeman in question was suspended pending an investigation.
“We take all allegations of inappropriate behavior seriously,” said Pittman. “Once this matter was brought to my attention, I immediately ordered the officer to be suspended until the Office of Professional Responsibility could conduct a full investigation.”
The House official who shared the photograph asked The Post for anonymity for fear of reprisals and said he was “extremely shaken” when he discovered the document openly.
According to the report, the date stamp on the document indicated that it was printed in January 2019.
The official told the Post that in the wake of the January 6 uprising, where protesters were photographed using and holding anti-Semitic images, they felt compelled to report what they saw.
In February, Capitol Police announced that they were investigating 35 police officers for actions related to the insurrection, and six were suspended.
The Protocols of the Sages of Zion are a conspiracy theory from centuries ago, targeting the Jewish people born in Imperial Russia and claim that it details a meeting of all-powerful Jewish elders who create a plan for world control.
The text, while fraudulent, was a centerpiece of anti-Semitic ideology in Nazi Germany and has been routinely promoted by white supremacist groups in the United States since the 1920s, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
According to the Post, the copy of the Capitol Police officer for the Elders of Zion appeared to come from an extreme-right, anti-Semitic Australian website called Bible Believers Church.