House Majority Whip Clyburn seeks investigation into how Capitol rioters knew where to find his office
Clyburn told SiriusXM Radio that he believes 'something else is going on here'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}House Majority Whip James Clyburn is calling for an inquiry into how rioters at the U.S. Capitol knew where to find his office space.
In an interview with SiriusXM Radio's Joe Madison, the South Carolina Democrat said Friday that he had never seen such a failure of law enforcement leadership before and suggested "something else is going on here."
"My office, if you don't know where it is, you aren't going to find it by accident," he said. "The one place where my name is on the door, that office is right on Statuary Hall. They didn't touch that door. But they went into that other place where I do most of my work. They showed up there, harassing my staff."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CLYBURN ACCUSES RESIGNING TRUMP CABINET MEMBERS OF 'RUNNING AWAY' FROM 25TH AMENDMENT DUTY
"How did they know to go there? Why didn't they go where my name was?" he asked. "Then, where you won't find my name, but they found where I was supposed to be."
"Something else is going on untoward here," he said. "We need to have an extensive investigation to find out."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Clyburn said he supports the men and women of the Capitol Police, but the agency's leaders failed to do their jobs. He also wondered why videos posted on social media appeared to show officers opening barriers and taking selfies with those who made it inside the building.
"Why were they out there waving people on to the grounds? Why were they allowing people through those doors?" he asked.
Clyburn told Madison that the people involved need to be held accountable for their actions.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We've got to indict. We've got to convict these people because one of those Capitol Police [officers] died and somebody should be tried for their death," he said. "All those people who were on those grounds the other day were complicit in that."
Clyburn's office pointed Fox News to a Friday interview with CBS News, during which he said he had been informed by other members of Congress that their staff saw people entering the Capitol through side doors.
"Who opened those side doors for these protesters, or I call them these mobsters, to come into the building -- not through the main entrance where magnetometers are but through side doors?" asked Clyburn. "Yes, somebody on the inside of those buildings were complicit in this."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}in addition, the House Majority Whip said he had felt something was "amiss" that morning when he first arrived at the Capitol where "the perimeter had not been established."
"There were no security people on the steps. They were all out in a place which I thought gave low security," he said. "They were not just derelict. You could say they were complicit."
A protester who made it inside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office was arrested days later. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Attempts by Fox News to reach Capitol Police for further comment were unsuccessful.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Brian D. Sicknick, 42, a New Jersey native and member of the Capitol Police First Responder's Unit, was among five people who died following the siege.
The Justice Department has pledged to spare no resources in investigating the death of the 12-year veteran of the force, and Capitol Police said Thursday that authorities from multiple agencies -- including the FBI -- were working on the case.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Clyburn also noted that rioters had been captured in photos ransacking offices like that of a staffer of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
A senior Justice Department official said authorities took Richard Barnett, 60, into custody in Little Rock, Ark., on Friday, after a viral photograph showed him sitting inside the office with one leg resting on the desk.