Majority leader in the House, James Clyburn, is calling for an investigation into how protesters at the United States Capitol knew where to find his office.
In an interview with Joe Madison of SiriusXM Radio, the South Carolina Democrat said on Friday that he had never seen such a flaw in police leadership before and suggested that “something else is happening here”.
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“My office, if you don’t know where it is, you won’t find it by accident,” he said. “The only place where my name is on the door, that office is right in Statuary Hall. They didn’t touch that door. But they went to that other place where I do most of my work. They showed up there, harassing my employees. “
“How did they know I should go there? Why didn’t they go where my name was?” he asked. “So, where you won’t find my name, but they found where I should be.”
“Something else is going on here,” he said. “We need an extensive investigation to find out.”
Clyburn said he supports the men and women of the Capitol Police, but the agency’s leaders have failed to do their job. He also wondered why the videos posted on social media seemed to show police officers opening barriers and taking selfies with those who managed to enter the building.
“Why were they out there waving people to enter the grounds? Why were they allowing people to go through those doors?” he asked.
Clyburn told Madison that the people involved need to be held responsible for their actions.
“We have to indict. We have to convict these people because one of those Capitol cops [officers] died and someone should be tried for his death, “he said.” All the people who were in those lands the other day were complicit in this. “
A protester sitting at the table of Mayor Nancy Pelosi, during the siege of the US Capitol on Wednesday, was identified as Richard Barnett. He was arrested on Friday, January 8. (Photo by Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
Brian D. Sicknick, 42, a New Jersey native and a member of the Capitol Police First Aid Unit, was among the five people who died after the siege.
The Justice Department has promised to spare no resources in investigating the death of the 12-year-old veteran of the force, and the Capitol Police said on Thursday that officials from various agencies – including the FBI – were working on the case.
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Clyburn also noted that protesters were captured in photos ransacking offices like that of House of Democrats President Nancy Pelosi.
A senior Justice Department official said authorities took Richard Barnett, 60, into custody in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Friday after a viral photograph showed him sitting in Pelosi’s office with one leg resting on his desk.
Fox News’s attempts to contact Clyburn’s office and the Capitol Police for further comment were unsuccessful.