A GOP member of Congress has accused the Capitol Hill Police of illegally entering his office and photographing legislative brainstorming notes.
The break-in occurred in early November, Representative Troy Nehls (R-Texas) says, and cops breached the premises again when the office was closed for Thanksgiving.
The accusation appeared as The Federalist divulged that the Inspector General of the police force is investigating claims that officers inappropriately if not illegally surveilled members of Congress.
The break-ins might all just be a misunderstanding. But given the possibly illegal activities of the House Select Committee that is probing the mostly peaceful protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Republicans are rightly concerned.
Dressed As Construction Workers
“The @CapitolPolice Intelligence Division investigated my office illegally and one of my staffers caught them in the act,” Nehls began a thread on Twitter this morning.
Nehls accused police of entering the office without his knowledge on November 20. They “photographed confidential legislative products protected by the Speech and Debate clause enshrined in the Constitution, Article 1 Section 6,” he continued:
Two days later on Monday November 22, 2021 (Thanksgiving week), three intelligence officers attempted to enter my office while the House was in recess.…
Upon discovering a member of my staff, special agents dressed like construction workers began to question him as to the contents of a photograph taken illegally two days earlier.
Nehls said the agency did not inform him or his senior staff of the breach.
“They had no authority to photograph my office, let alone investigate myself or members of my staff,” he continued. “So, why is the Capitol Police Leadership maliciously investigating me in an attempt to destroy me and my character?”
Nehls believes the cops are investigating him for political reasons. He has criticized the January 6 panel and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
IG Looking Into It
Meanwhile, Capitol Hill Police Chief J. Thomas Manger confirmed the IG’s probe in a letter to GOP legislators, The Federalist’s Sean Davis reported today.
In January, the conservative website noted, Politico reported that the police agency’s intelligence chief, Julie Farnahm, had ordered close surveillance of legislators.
She ordered “analysts to run ‘background checks’ on people whom lawmakers planned to meet, including donors and associates,” Politico reported. “When staff were listed as attending these meetings, Capitol Police intelligence analysts also got asked to check the social media accounts of the staffers.”
Manger denied the Politico report in the letter to the Republican congressmen.
Davis also offered more detail about the break-ins at Nehls’s office:
In a formal police report filed several days after the incident, the officer wrote that he had been conducting a routine security patrol on Saturday, November 21, and discovered that one of the doors to Nehls’ office was open.
The report claimed that the officer entered Nehls’ office and found a whiteboard that contained “suspicious writings mentioning body armor[.]” The officer reportedly took a photo of the whiteboard, which was then passed around to analysts within USCP. The following Monday, USCP dispatched three plain-clothed intelligence officers to Nehls’ office and questioned a staffer who was there about the whiteboard and the legislative proposals it contained.
Notes about body armor were on the whiteboard because Nehls and staffers were preparing legislation to stop the government from purchasing Chinese-made body armor. The Washington Post had reported that a federal contractor in Texas had pleaded guilty to defrauding the government by selling it the Chinese-made junk.
What the police report did not include was any reference to multiple items on Nehls’ whiteboard immediately following the words “body armor” referencing Export Administration Regulations dealing specifically with Chinese imports or U.S. Department of Justice standards for certifying body armor.
The responding officer was also concerned about a map of the Rayburn building on the whiteboard. It was meant to help an intern find an ice machine.
Nehls helped barricade the House floor as protesters moved through the U.S. Capitol last year.
“If Capitol Police leadership had spent as much time preparing for January 6 as they spent investigating my white board, the January 6 riot never would have happened,” he told Davis.
Nehls and other Republicans might be concerned about the agency’s surveillance because of the wide-ranging, possibly illegal investigation of the Select Committee on January 6.
As The New American reported yesterday, the committee’s investigatory activities have far exceeded what a congressional committee is allowed to do by law. It has likely breached the constitutional rights of at least one witness.
