Capitol Police deny claim officers spy on Republicans

WASHINGTON — A year after the Jan. 6 insurrection, U.S. Capitol Police officers are facing increasingly heated and baseless allegations from House Republicans that the department’s officers are operating as politically driven spies. The rhetoric is complicating the force’s effort to win back public confidence.

The latest tumult occurred Tuesday, when Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas accused the Capitol Police of having “illegally” investigated his office in November. Both Nehls and the police agree on basic facts about the incident in question that indicate no laws were broken when an officer entered Nehls’ office.

But in a Fox News interview, Nehls alleged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, “is weaponizing the U.S. Capitol Police to investigate me, to try to silence me, intimidate me, and quite honestly, to destroy me.” He provided no evidence for that claim and Pelosi noted Wednesday that she has “no power over the Capitol Police.”

While far more attention has been paid to the committee looking back at the insurrection, the U.S. Capitol Police is undergoing a quieter reform process to fix its intelligence and operational failures on Jan. 6. The department is collecting more data and changing its processes for sharing and acting on information about threats.

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger strenuously denied that his officers spied on Nehls, a former sheriff of Fort Bend County in suburban Houston. Promoting that unfounded theory could put his officers at increased risk, Manger said.