Two days after being denied entrance into the Department of Justice and then chased away by protestors, four Republican lawmakers probing the conditions of the inmates arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol have been barred from a facility where some 50 of the prisoners are said to be held.
Reps Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) showed up at the DC Central Detention Facility the morning of July 29. The lawmakers have been inquiring into reports that those involved in the incursion into the Capitol have been severely beaten, held in solitary confinement, and denied access to evidence about their own cases.
The members of Congress were allowed into the lobby, but were quickly told by a corrections officer that they were trespassing.
“You’re obstructing,” the corrections officer could be heard saying on a live broadcast streamed by the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN).
“My gosh, the government is upside down,” Gohmert said in response.
The corrections officer indicated to the members of Congress that her supervisor would speak to them outside. But when the lawmakers went outside, they found that they were then locked out of the building in what Gaetz called a “bait and switch.” Gaetz attempted to reenter the facility, but was denied—along with an attorney who was trying to enter to see a client.
“The supervisor came down, was standing right here, but she turned her back on me,” Gohmert said of the situation. “The other one won’t talk to me.”
Gohmert said he and his colleagues gave the facility advanced notice that they would be attending—he didn’t say how far in advance—but they never received a response. He said there shouldn’t be anything preventing members of Congress from examining the facilities over which they have oversight, as he has done numerous times in the past.
BY KEN SILVA
