Davis Letter To Pelosi - 021722

February 17th, 2022
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Speaker Pelosi:
For over a year, Democrats in the House of Representatives have sought to exploit the
violence of January 6, 2021 for partisan political purposes. Democrats have gone as far as to
publicly accuse their Republican colleagues of organizing so-called “reconnaissance” tours of
the Capitol Complex in advance of January 6. These claims are baseless. We have reviewed the
security footage for the relevant period, and it does not support these wild accusations. We
demand that you release this footage immediately so that the American people can see the truth
and judge for themselves why Democrats are so willing to mislead about the events of January 6.
On January 13, 2021, a group of 34 Democrats, led by Representative Mikie Sherrill,

wrote to the Acting House Sergeant-at-Arms, the Acting Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, and the
Acting Chief of U.S. Capitol Police calling for an investigation into “suspicious behavior” by
groups in the Capitol Complex on January 5.1 These Democrats alleged without evidence that
these tours were tied to the violence of January 6, writing “the group that attacked the Capitol
seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex.”2
Representative Sherrill elaborated publicly:
Those Members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw
on January 5th for reconnaissance for the next day—those Members of Congress
who incited the violent crowd, those Members that attempted to help our president
undermine our democracy—I’m going to see that they’re held accountable.”3
The same day, during an interview on MSNBC, Representative Sean Patrick Maloney
told Americans he could “confirm” Representative Sherrill’s allegations.4 He told MSNBC
viewers, “we find ourselves at a place where the enemy is within, and we cannot trust our own
colleagues.”5 Similarly, on CNN on January 18, Representative Steve Cohen specifically accused
a Republican colleague by name of leading a reconnaissance tour. Representative Cohen said:
1
Letter from Rep. Mikie Sherrill et al. to Timothy Blodgett, Acting House Sergeant-at-Arm, et al. (Jan. 13, 2021).
2
Id.
3
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, An Address to the 11th District, Facebook (Jan. 12, 2021).
4
Deadline: White House (MSNBC television broadcast Jan. 13, 2021) (interview with Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney).
5
Id.
February xx, 2022
Page 2
Only thing that I’ve seen, Congressman Yarmouth refreshed my recollection

yesterday. We saw Congresswoman Boebert taking a group of people for a tour
sometime after the 3rd and before the 6th. I don’t remember the day we were
walking in a tunnel and we saw her and commented who she was and she had a
large group with her. Now whether these people were people that were involved in
the insurrection or not, I do not know. She was a freshman, she might have had a
large number of people coming to be with her on this historic occasion and just
wanting to give them the opportunity to have a tour. But it is pretty clear that her
team is the team—she’s not on the home team. She was with the visitors.6
Likewise, Representative Jason Crow led a group of over 100 Democrats in calling for an
investigation, in part, into the role of Members in the January 6 violence.7 In an interview with
the New York Times, Representative Crow specifically accused his colleagues of being
“complicit” in the January 6 violence.8 You also breathed life into these accusations, telling
reporters in January 2021 that the allegations “will be looked into” to determine if Members
“were accomplices to this insurrection.”9
Even now, House Democrats are continuing to parrot accusations that Republican
Members led “reconnaissance” tours of the Capitol. Last month, Representative Bennie
Thompson, your handpicked chair of the January 6 Select Committee, told the Washington Post
that the Select Committee had evidence of Members “aiding or abetting” the violence.10 He
alleged: “We have information that before the actual certification, people came earlier, were
giving tours in the Capitol.”11 Representative Thompson’s assertion to the Washington Post is
dubious because only days earlier he told NBC’s Meet the Press that the Select Committee
“do[es]n’t have any real knowledge that I’m aware of, of people giving tours. We heard a lot of
that. But we’re still — to be honest with you, reviewing a lot of film that the House
administration and other have provided the committee.”12
We have reviewed the security footage from the Capitol Complex during the relevant
period preceding January 6, 2021, and we know it does not support these repeated Democrat
accusations about so-called “reconnaissance” tours. Regrettably, the truth has not stopped these
Democrat allegations. The repeated attempts by House Democrats to spread misinformation
about Republican-led “reconnaissance” tours is just the latest example of how House Democrats
have sought to exploit January 6 for political purposes. The Select Committee has already been
6
CNN Newsroom (CNN television broadcast Jan. 18, 2021) (interview with Rep. Steve Cohen).
7
Letter from Rep. Jason Crow et al. to Gene L. Dodaro, Gov. Accountability Office (Jan. 7, 2021). See also Luke
Broadwater, Republican lawmakers are accused of giving Capitol tours to insurrectionists before the riot as new
inquires are opened, N.Y. Times, Jan. 13, 2021.
8
Luke Broadwater, Republican lawmakers are accused of giving Capitol tours to insurrectionists before the riot as
new inquires are opened, N.Y. Times, Jan. 13, 2021.
9
Marisa Schultz, Pelosi: Any GOP lawmakers who ‘aided or abetted’ Capitol rioters should be prosecuted, Fox
News (Jan. 15, 2021).
10
Transcript: One year later with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Wash. Post (Jan. 6, 2022).
11
Id.
12
Meet the Press (NBC television broadcast Jan. 2, 2022) (interview with Rep. Bennie Thompson).
February xx, 2022
Page 3
caught altering and misrepresenting nonpublic information about Republican Members,13 falsely
attributing statements to Republican Members,14 and selectively leaking nonpublic information
to create false public narratives.15 Now it appears that Representative Thompson and the Select
Committee are similarly misrepresenting the contents of nonpublic security footage to wrongly
accuse Republican Members of wrongdoing.
The only way for you to stop the spread of Democrat misinformation about January 6
“reconnaissance” tours is to release all of the relevant security footage. Because House
Democrats released selective excerpts of this footage in conjunction with its impeachment effort
last year, we know it is possible to release this footage without undermining law-enforcement
procedures or processes. We call on you to release all of the footage immediately to set the
record straight and allow the American people to judge for themselves the merits of these
Democrat allegations.
Sincerely,
Rodney Davis
Ranking Member
13
Sean Davis, During January 6 hearing, Schiff doctored text messages between Mark Meadows and Rep. Jim
Jordan, The Federalist (Dec. 15, 2021).
14
Daniel Chaitlin & Asher Notheis, Jan. 6 Committee caught misportraying another text message to Mark
Meadows, Wash. Exam. (Dec. 17, 2021).
15
See Kimberley A. Strassell, What the Jan. 6 panel won’t probe, Wall St. J. (Jan. 6, 2022).

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February 17th, 2022

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

On January 13, 2021, a group of 34 Democrats, led by Representative Mikie Sherrill,

Only thing that I’ve seen, Congressman Yarmouth refreshed my recollection

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