US rep. releases Jan. 6 video images of Capitol Police officer who Blaze News writer

Says appears tohave lied in court

DAVE URBANSKI

U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus on Jan. 6, 2021 (Image source: U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Georgia)

U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) has released video images from Jan. 6, 2021, showing the movements of a Capitol Police officer who Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker said appears to have given false testimonyregarding his whereabouts that day during a key encounter with members of the Oath Keepers.

Loudermilk, chairman of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said in a statement to Baker that he released the still frames — from closed-circuit TV video with timestamps — of U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus because "an allegation of a Capitol Police officer lying under oath is very serious and must be fully investigated."

What's the background?

Baker's Oct. 4 investigative story for Blaze News was based on his exhaustive examination of Jan. 6 CCTV video to which he was given access.

In that story, Baker noted that Jan. 6 prosecutors — in their attempt to prove Oath Keepers were guilty of trying to overthrow the U.S. government — said members of the group were involved in a contentious interaction with law enforcement at the top of the stairs next to the Capitol Rotunda, which also is known as the small or mini rotunda or the Speaker’s Lobby.

However, Baker said no video evidence from Capitol CCTV cameras was presented to the jury — despite the existence of at least 1,700 cameras in and around the building and grounds and 41,000 hours of footage. In fact, Baker said much of the video footage has been kept from the public defenders as well as the public.

Baker said prosecutors instead relied on the accounts of two law enforcement officers. One of them, Baker said, is Lazarus, a member of the security detail for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Baker said Lazarus testified that he passed USCP Officer Harry Dunn engaging with four Oath Keepers “three or four times” while he was evacuating Pelosi staffers trapped in a locked office in her chambers.

However, Baker said Lazarus could not have witnessed the interaction "because Lazarus was in another Senate office building across the street from Constitution Ave. at the time the encounter between Dunn and the Oath Keepers began." Baker noted that his Blaze Media investigation tracked Lazarus "while he was escorting Senators and staff on Capitol CCTV cameras."

Here's one of the timestamped Lazarus images that Loudermilk released to Blaze News, above.

See tweets that go with the story: theblaze.com