(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., released information Friday about the infamous gallows built on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, claiming that the FBI still doesn’t know who built them.
The gallows have been used as a prop by the Justice Department and Democrats to argue that the Capitol Hill protestors were threatening government officials and staging an insurrection.
Indeed, the Democratic January 6th Commission showed a video during its first hearing of protestors appearing to breach the Capitol chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” followed by an image of the gallows, which had been erected hundreds of yards away. And the committee overlapped these chants with the image of the gallows, implying the crowd of Trump supporters built the gallows as a threat of violence against then-Vice President Pence.
“Later, witness Cassidy Hutchinson told the Select Committee she overheard a conversation where Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said President Trump agreed with the chants to hang the Vice President,” noted Loudermilk, who chairs the House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight.
With all that said, Loudermilk deemed it strange that the gallows builders still haven’t been identified, despite the abundance of information about their activities.
“Three years later, the FBI still has no suspects. Additionally, the Select Committee on January 6th seemingly did not review the USCP CCTV footage to identify the culprits behind the gallows, or if they did, they never released information about when the gallows were built and who built them—which can all be seen on CCTV footage from early in the morning on January 6,” Loudermilk said in a Friday press release.
According to Loudermilk, the gallows builders arrived at approximately 6:30 a.m. on January 6, 2021, in a white full-size van parked north of Constitution Avenue. There, three passengers unloaded a large bundle of lumber with wheels.
After unloading, the group walked the bundle across Constitution Avenue and onto the grass at Union Square, according to Loudermilk. They were then joined by two more people arriving by cab at the corner of 1st and C Streets NW, Loudermilk said.
Between 6:30 a.m. and 7:15 a.m., the group constructed the platform and two main pillars of the gallows, only leaving off the crossbeam, he said. During this time, the apparent group leader along with one other person, left the group and walked down 3rd Street, heading north. They returned a few minutes later with coffee, and the entire group left the scene, according to Loudermilk.
“Despite the leader’s distinctive clothing—he was wearing a long trench coat, long white scarf, fedora-type hat, and walking with a cane—he has never been identified publicly,” he said.
“At approximately 1:00 p.m., the group of five returned to the scene and the presumed leader, now wearing a baseball cap, installed the final crossbeam and added the noose made of bright orange rope. Shortly after construction was complete, all five men left the grounds.”
Loudermilk noted that the construction of the gallows violated the Capitol Police Guidelines for Conducting an event on United States Capitol Grounds, which prohibit temporary structures from being built on Capitol grounds. He asked why Capitol Police allowed the gallows to remain intact throughout the morning of Jan. 6.
“It is inconceivable that a gallows could be constructed on U.S. Capitol property and left up all day,” he said.
“These men arrived early in the morning, several hours before the rally even started or anyone had gathered, to construct the gallows platform, yet this structure was allowed to stay intact for all to see. These actions raise more serious and troubling questions. Why didn’t the U.S. Capitol Police take down the gallows once it was seen on Capitol property, and why have the individuals never been identified?”
The FBI did not immediately respond to a Headline USA email with questions about whether building the gallows on Capitol grounds was actually a crime.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
