The United States Capitol Police (USCP) announced on Thursday that the department is currently investigating 29 officers, and has suspended six, for their actions during the protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, according to CNN.
A department spokesman said that “Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman has directed that any member of her department whose behavior is not keeping in line with the Department’s Rules of Conduct will face appropriate discipline.” The six who were suspended will still be receiving pay, and the 29 total officers under investigation is nearly three times the amount of officers who were previously announced as being under investigation back in January.
Pittman said that, as part of the ongoing investigations, the USCP was “reviewing video and other open source materials of some USCP officers and officials that appear to be in violation of Department regulations and practices.” Some Democrats, including Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), have claimed, without evidence, that some officers openly supported the protesters, allowed them inside, and even guided them around the interior of the building.
During the mostly peaceful protests, Trump supporters entered the Capitol out of protest of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, as the questionable electoral college results were being formally tabulated by Congress. One Trump supporter, Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, was shot in the neck by a plainclothes police officer at close range; the officer who killed her will not be facing any charges for her death.
Several other people died that same day due to sudden medical conditions that had nothing to do with the protests, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick; Sicknick has been confirmed to have died of a stroke after it was erroneously reported that he had been beaten to death by protesters with a fire extinguisher.