Capitol Police Caught Spying in Republican Congressional Office, Investigation Launched – Opinion

Late January saw news of several instances in which the Capitol Police appeared to spy on Republican members of Congress. Those actions followed the rank politicization of the force that took place after January 6th, including the expansion of its intelligence-gathering mission in areas that are, at best, questionable.

Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, was one example. He expressed outrage via Politico.

Analysts had to also search through tax and real-estate records in an effort to discover who owns the property that legislators visited. One example is a Senate meeting held in private homes by Rick Scott (R.Fla.). Analysts eyed the homeowner’s and attendees’ social media accounts, and looked for any foreign contacts they had.

“These reports are incredibly disturbing,” Scott spokesperson McKinley Lewis said in a statement. “It is unthinkable that any government entity would conduct secret investigations to build political dossiers on private Americans. American citizens should know the truth about Chuck Schumer’s and Nancy Pelosi’s actions and whereabouts. Senator Scott believes the Senate Rules Committee should immediately investigate.”

Although vetting contacts isn’t necessarily illegal, it should be done openly and with legislators. Instead, Capitol Police created a system which remains hidden and seems to only target Republicans.

The Federalist also reported a disturbing instance of such behavior, this time with Rep. Troy Nehls (Republican-Texas). According to a police report filed by a USCP officer, Nehls’ office was entered without permission and his work materials were photographed because they appeared “suspicious.”

One USCP officer entered Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Tex., and took a photo of a whiteboard in Nehls’ legislative office detailing various legislative plans being considered by Nehls and his staff. In a formal police report filed several days after the incident, the officer wrote that he had been conducting a routine security patrol on Saturday, November 21, and discovered that one of the doors to Nehls’ office was open.

The report claimed that the officer entered Nehls’ office and found a whiteboard that contained “suspicious writings mentioning body armor[.]” The officer reportedly took a photo of the whiteboard, which was then passed around to analysts within USCP. The following Monday, USCP dispatched three plain-clothed intelligence officers to Nehls’ office and questioned a staffer who was there about the whiteboard and the legislative proposals it contained.

In reality, the mention of “body armor” on the whiteboard was in relation to a federal contractor in Texas who had committed fraud by supplying Chinese-made body armor instead of U.S.-made body armor.

Additionally, the police reports were deliberately filed in a different context. The whiteboard contained other legislative issues on it, but they weren’t mentioned by the trespassing officer, making it seem as if Nehls was planning something with body armor. As the former Fort Bend County Sheriff, Nehls actually was drafting legislation to prohibit the purchase of Chinese-made armor.

Regardless, the reason behind the intrusion into Nehls’ office is irrelevant. USCP entered private areas without authorization, stole information and sent officers afterward to harass staffers about the matter. It is almost impossible to see what the USCP did, even if you look up at it.

Nehls reacted with the right amount of outrage at what had happened.

“If Capitol Police leadership had spent as much time preparing for January 6 as they spent investigating my white board, the January 6 riot never would have happened,” Nehls, a former law enforcement officer, told The Federalist. “When I was a patrol officer responding to a call, I didn’t have the time or authority to go rifling through someone’s personal papers. There are serious 4th Amendment, constitutional issues at play here.”

These recent incidents have been investigated by the USCP InspectorGeneral. Unfortunately, the review is likely being done as a ploy to reinforce the USCP’s actions, given it was requested by Chief J. Thomas Manger. You can imagine that wouldn’t be happening if he didn’t feel the verdict was already predetermined.

A spokesperson for the USCP simply stated that Nehls was safe and sound when asked.

“We do not conduct surveillance on Members, their staff, or their offices,” a spokesman for the Capitol Police told The Federalist. “The USCP does not conduct any ‘insider threats’ related surveillance of intelligence gathering on Members, staff, or visitors to the Capitol Complex.”

Yet, that’s exactly what happened. They not only monitored Nehls’ activities, but also went into his home to take photographs of his communications. The USCP’s claim after the fact that they had been concerned about an outside threat doesn’t add up nor excuse this overreach.

There are a lot of issues riding on the November election, and while this may not be the most important one, it’s one Republicans must take seriously nonetheless. Imagine how regular citizens of the United States are treated by federal law enforcement agencies if they can behave in this manner towards elected officials.

When GOP retakes the House, one of the first orders of business should be reining in Manger and his “intelligence gathering” operation.