Lawmakers face fire for role in riot

Those who helped the rioters on Jan 6 should be prosecuted, says House Speaker

WASHINGTON: Members of the US Congress who had helped a crowd of President Donald Trump’s supporters storm the Capitol on January 6 should face criminal prosecution, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday.

Democrats have alleged that the rioters were given advance tours of the Capitol ahead of the attack by some Republicans. How else, they have argued, could the rioters know their way around, swiftly reaching office rooms deep inside the building.

“If, in fact, it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted the crime, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecutions,” the speaker said at a press meet.

“In order to serve here with each other, we must trust that

Apeople have respect for their oath of office, respect for this institution,” Pelosi said.

Mikie Sherrill, a Democratic lawmaker, said she saw “members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on January 5 for reconnaissance for the next day”.

James Clyburn, a Democrat, was surprised how the rioters reached his unmarked office. “It seems to me that something was going on, some coordination was going on between sitting members of Congress and some of these visitors to the Capitol,” he said.

Preparations are under way to secure the US Capitol for Biden’s inauguration on January 20 - with four times more troops deployed in Washington, DC than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

Vice-president Mike Pence is expected to attend the inauguration, while Trump said he won’t. Pence, meanwhile, called vice-president-elect Kamala Harris on Thursday to congratulate her, offering his cooperation with the transition process.