Texas Republican Reveals Result of Capitol Police Criminal Probe

A GOP lawmaker from Texas says he was informed this week that Capitol Police were not upfront with him regarding the real reason they entered his office in November and took pictures.

Rep. Troy Nehls said during an interview with “John Solomon Reports” on Friday that a soon-to-be released Inspector General report will reveal that he was “under criminal investigation” with officers entered his office, which is not what he was told at the time.

Nehls disclosed in February that police told him he was not under criminal investigation following the Nov. 20 and 22 incidents in which officers entered his congressional office on Capitol Hill.

But on Friday, the Texas Republican said that a “full report” from the Capitol Police IG on the issue that is expected to be released to him next week shows that wasn’t true, citing an “executive summary” of the report he has already received.

Just the News adds:

He alleges that on Nov. 20, a Capitol Police officer entered his office without his knowledge and photographed “confidential legislative products protected by the Speech and Debate clause” of the Constitution,” purportedly on a whiteboard.

Chief J. Thomas Manger said an officer saw that Nehls’ office door was left “wide open,” and that if a member’s office is vacant, left open and unsecured, “officers are directed to document that and secure the office to ensure nobody can wander in and steal or do anything else nefarious,” according to the newspaper Roll Call.

A couple of days later, Capitol Police personnel reportedly followed up with Nehls’ staff and determined there was no need for investigation or further action, Manger said.

The lawmaker noted that on Nov. 22, three intelligence officers from the department again tried to enter his office and that after they discovered one of his staffers was there, the special agents — who were dressed like construction workers — asked the staffer about the contents of a photo that had been taken.

Nehls said that the department never informed him or senior staff of “their investigation.”

“What [the IG’s report is] going to show is that the Capitol Police were trying to preserve evidence taking this picture,” Nehls said Friday.

“And so the IG will tell you that I was under investigation when you’ve got the chief of police saying I was never under investigation. I can assure you, I was under criminal investigation. So I’m looking forward to getting this report on next week.”

He went on to speculate that he was targeted by the department because of public statements he had made regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

“I’d been beat up, beat to hell on social media by the far left, everybody calling me an insurrectionist and everything else because they actually felt that I was the threat because of my position on J6,” he said on the podcast. “I exposed J6. I exposed the Capitol Police leadership team for failing to do their damn job.

“And if they would have done their job, J6 would have never ever happened. If the National Guard would have been deployed on our nation’s capitol on Jan. 4, and all of the intelligence were there, January 6 would have never taken place. But there are people that wanted it to take place,” he speculated.

“They were coming after me to silence and destroy me,” Nehls said during the podcast. “That’s what [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi wants to do to guys like me. If I am a vocal critic of J6 and that leadership team, they’re going to go out there and try to destroy me just like they did with Donald Trump.”

Some Republicans want to know more about Pelosi’s role ahead of the riot including why she did not order enhanced security.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, has refused to cooperate with the January 6 Committee’s probe into the riot while also calling for an investigation into Pelosi’s conduct. He has also claimed the panel’s investigation is just a “political operation” aimed at trying to prevent former President Donald Trump from running again.

Reporting from The Conservative Brief.

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