DEMS CLAIM INSIDE JOB

Republican congressman's top aide admits to being with mob which stormed the Capitol as Democrats demand full-scale police probe into whether MAGA riots got inside help from GOP members and staff

 

Daily Mail

January 14, 2021

 

A senior aide to a conservative Republican congressman admitted Thursday to being so close to the MAGA riots that she saw flash bombs and tear gas and could have touched shot rioter Ashli Babbitt when she was taken to an ambulance.

Sandy Adams, district director for Virginia's Bob Good, said she and her husband were there for '45 minutes' - an admission which comes amid mounting demands by Democrats for a full-scale investigation into whether Republican members or staff helped plan the event.

Adams and her husband Melvin Adams denied taking part in any violence but acknowledged being at the police barriers. 

They went 'to join with many, many thousands of wonderful red-blooded American patriots in Washington DC,' Melvin Adams wrote in an email obtained by the Washington Post. 

'I did witness the use of flash bombs and tear gas at the entrances in efforts to control the crowd,' according to Adams. 

'But the tragic nature of events inside came home full force when a young lady who had been shot was being taken to the ambulance, passing so close to us that we could have literally reached out and touched her,' he wrote. 

News of the top Republican staffer's attendance comes as the House Democratic Whip charged that sitting lawmakers gave inside help to MAGA mob rioters – as a group of Democratic lawmakers is demanding to know how rioters appeared to gain 'unusually detailed knowledge' of the Capitol they ransacked. 

Rep. James C. Clyburn of South Carolina is pointing to rioters who located his own unmarked office, as well as 'tours' that several Democrats say GOP lawmakers provided in advance of the January 6 riot. 

'Well, it seems to me that something was going on – some coordination was going on between sitting members of Congress and some of these called visitors to the Capitol,' Clyburn said. 

A group of House Democrats, led by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (N.J.), have written Capitol Police demanding the identities of people who toured Capitol facilities the day before the riot – along with any information on the members who brought them there. Sherrill is a former Navy helicopter pilot who ultimately helped rally support for the first Trump impeachment. 

Good is a fervently pro-Trump first-term Republican who defeated another Republican in the primary. He was the athletic director of Liberty University. 

The Democratic lawmakers are seeking answers to a series of questions about procedures for public admittance to the Capitol – with an eye toward identifying who was in the building Jan. 5 and what lawmakers may have gotten them in.

‘Many of the Members who signed this letter, including those of us who have served in the military and are trained to recognize suspicious activity, as well as various members of our staff, witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups in the complex on Tuesday, January 5,’ they wrote. The letter was signed by 34 lawmakers.

They called the tours ‘noticeable and concerning’ and said rioters the following day seemed to have ‘unusually detailed knowledge’ of the building.

‘This is unusual for several reasons, including the fact that access to the Capitol Complex has been restricted since public tours ended in March of last year due to the pandemic. The tours being conducted on Tuesday, January 5, were a noticeable and concerning departure from the procedures in place as of March 2020 that limited the number of visitors to the Capitol.’

They say the tours were 'so concerning' that they were reported to the Sergeant at Arms the day before the riot.   

'The visitors encountered by some of the Members of Congress on this letter appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day. That group left the White House and marched to the Capitol with the objective of preventing Congress from certifying our election. Members of the group that attacked the Capitol seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex. The presence of these groups within the Capitol Complex was indeed suspicious. Given the events of January 6, the ties between these groups inside the Capitol Complex and the attacks on the Capitol need to be investigated,’ they wrote.

The members went on to ask detailed questions bout the system for tracking Capitol visitors. 

'Are there video logs of the day in question?' they demanded to know. 'Is facial recognition software used for visitors entering the complex?'

'I've been listening to my colleagues and watching many of their interviews on television and many of them saw things going on the day before that led them to believe that something was amiss,' Clyburn added. 

 In just one example of direct connections to the protest that became a bloody riot, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) has deleted a tweet three days before the events where he bragged about meeting with participants.

'Had a great meeting today with folks from ‘Stop the Steal’ at our nation’s Capitol. I encouraged them to keep fighting and assured them I look forward to doing MY duty on January 6th, Sessions wrote in the the Jan. 3 tweet. said. Sessions included the hashtags '#StopTheSteal and #legalvotescount.' Following the riots, he tweeted about the 'illegal and unprecedented charge on the U.S. Capitol.'

Sessions used to chair the House Rules Committee, whose ornate offices are just steps from the House chamber and Speaker's Lobby that was overrun during the riots.