An internal investigation into the Capitol Police confirmed that the officer was at fault for illegally entering a Texas Republican’s office and taking pictures of various documents, including a whiteboard detailing legislative plans.
According to Just The News, the probe determined that the officer involved displayed “questionable judgment,” and that future officers need to be able to maintain “proper balance of protecting congressional representatives and their staff from physical outside threats, while simultaneously protecting their legislative proposals and work product from possibly inappropriate photography, scrutiny, and questioning.”
The report follows the original November 20th incident last year, in which one officer entered the office of Congressman Troy Nehls (R-Texas) over the Thanksgiving holiday break, when no staffers or members of Congress were in the office buildings. But, as Nehls himself said in a statement following the release of the probe’s findings, the ultimate motivation behind the officer’s suspicious actions remains unknown.
Nehls claimed that the reason for the intrusion was his criticisms of Speaker Nancy Pelois’s (D-Calif.) highly controversial January 6th committee, a partisan committee with seven Democrats and just two Republicans, which is dedicated to investigating the peaceful protests that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
“I personally believe that Nancy Pelosi has weaponized the U.S. Capitol Police as her own investigations unit,” Nehls said in an interview. “She goes after anybody that has dissenting point of views. I obviously have been a very vocal critic of the January 6th committee and the events of January 6.”
But the Capitol Police released its own statement defending the actions of the officer and criticizing Nehls.
“In February, a U.S. Representative claimed that we illegally investigated and spied on him and his staff,” the department’s statement read. “The allegations were made after one of our vigilant officers noticed the door to the Congressman’s office suite had been left open during the Thanksgiving weekend.”
“The U.S. Representative was never under criminal investigation. His staff was never under criminal investigation,” the department continued, while also criticizing Nehls for allegedly “spreading unfounded conspiracy theories in the press,” which “undermines the work our brave men and women do every day to protect the Members of Congress, the Capitol Complex, and the legislative process.”
Nehls called on Speaker Pelosi and others in House leadership to make sure an incident like this never happens again, saying that “Democrats and Republicans alike should support the idea of saying this should never happen to anybody. You cannot go in and start taking pictures of legislative materials or things that you find suspicious.”