Sandy MaloneWashington, DC – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) on Wednesday vehemently denied allegations that she has been using the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) as her own secret spy agency to investigate political enemies after a GOP lawmaker levied harsh accusations against her on Tuesday.
Pelosi snapped at a reporter on Feb. 9 when she was asked about the allegations that Capitol Police had been investigating members of Congress and their offices at her behest.
“Don’t waste your time,” she said. “I have no power over the Capitol Police. Does anybody not know that?”
“The Capitol Police have responded to that gentleman’s allegation and that stands as what it is,” the speaker continued. “But I have no power over the police.”
Watch Nancy Pelosi completely SNAP and lose her absolute mind when asked on abusing power of Capitol Police pic.twitter.com/PqGCgiDZ9I
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) February 9, 2022
U.S. Representative Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who served more than 30 years in law enforcement and became sheriff of Bend County before he was elected to Congress, put out a series of bombshell-dropping tweets detailing allegations of malfeasance against the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) and U.S. House leadership.
Nehls claims that USCP had illegally entered his office, taken pictures of legislative work product, and then launched an investigation based on what they had found on the congressman’s white board.
The first incident occurred on Nov. 20, 2021 when a USCP officer allegedly discovered an unlocked door on Nehls’ congressional office, according to a press release from the lawmaker’s office.
The officer entered the congressman’s office and proceeded to take photos of confidential materials that were found inside, including a white board that contained information about “a pro law enforcement bill that would have ensured body armor quality for law enforcement officers.”
Nehls’ office said the officer sent the picture up the chain at USCP and it made it to intelligence analysts that filed a report citing “suspicious writings” found in the GOP congressman’s office, sparking concern and causing the launch of an investigation.
But Nehls said his office was never notified that there was any sort of investigation into him or his staff being conducted.
Two days later, while Congress was out on Thanksgiving break and most offices were empty, three USCP officers dressed as construction workers tried to get into Nehls’ office yet again.
But on Nov. 22, 2021, the officers encountered a staff member who was there working.
The press release said that the officers proceeded to question the staff member about the contents the white board.
What the white board contained, according to The Federalist, was a brainstorm session about legislation banning the procurement of Chinese body armor.
Nehls’ office said that list was made in the wake of a story in The Washington Post that detailed how a federal contractor from Texas had defrauded the U.S. government by supplying them with Chinese-made body armor instead of ballistic gear manufactured in the United States.
The police report about the “suspicious writings” on Nehls whiteboard left out the list that was written underneath the words “body armor” that included references to export administration regulations dealing with Chinese imports and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) standards for the ballistic equipment, according to The Federalist.
“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 said. “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.”
One Republican congressional staffer who does not work for Nehls told The Federalist that since Jan. 6, 2021, Pelosi has used Capitol Police as her own personal mercenaries instead of focusing on the security failures that let the Capitol riot occur.
“Instead of fixing the obvious problems with Capitol security, Pelosi used January 6 as an excuse to create her own personal Praetorian Guard,” the aide said.
The press release from the congressman’s office outlined in more detail the “unethical entry” that the lawmaker called “a violation of Members’ right to speech and debate, as well as a 4th amendment violation.”
Nehls followed up with USCP Chief Thomas Manger in a series of calls, letters, and meetings during which the police chief claimed that the report had stemmed from concerns the writings on the whiteboard were a “veiled threat” to Nehls’ life, according to the press release.
“After communicating with Chief Manger, it became clear that my office was under investigation and surveillance by USCP. We were the ‘threat,’” Nehls said. “If Capitol Police had spent this much time investigating January 6th as they did investigating my private legislative materials, January 6th would not have happened.”
The congressman asked the USCP inspector general to investigate his allegations of illegal investigations being conducted by the Capitol’s law enforcement agency.
He said the inspector general had accepted his request and an investigation had been opened.
“Capitol Police leadership have put a target on my back, but my work in exposing the security failures on January 6th, the death of Ms. Babbitt, and the sham investigation into the events of January 6th will not be deterred,” Nehls vowed.
A spokesman for the congressman explicitly told The Police Tribune that Nehls does not lay any blame on the rank-and-file members of the Capitol Police force – just their leadership.
The USCP statement to which Pelosi referred when she refused to answer questions about the allegations on Feb. 9 denied any investigation into Nehls had been initiated and claimed the officers’ behavior had been business as usual.
My response to @CapitolPolice leadership's statement👇 pic.twitter.com/VrtzJcLl77
— Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) February 8, 2022
Nehls called the police chief’s statement a “bold-faced lie,” KHOU reported.
“Chief Manger’s statement is a mischaracterization of the events, omits key details, and fails to respond to the most troubling actions of his Department,” he wrote in a statement.
Holly Matkin
