Is Nancy Pelosi Using Capitol Police to Spy on Republican Lawmakers?

So says the allegation from Rep. Troy Nehl of Texas, along with a few other House Republicans who signed a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding answers for alleged spying and monitoring by Capitol Police.

Some of the anger stems from a recent Politico article released in January which detailed the way Capitol Police investigators in an internal intelligence unit were digging into the background and social media feeds of anyone who met with several GOP lawmakers and could be linked to the January 6 Capitol Hill riot.

Now, Republicans want Pelosi to answer for the allegations and investigate the actions of Capitol Police relating to spying on House members:

Several Republicans signed a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Committee on House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., calling on them to investigate the reports of Capitol Police “monitoring” lawmakers and citizens.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., led the letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital with 33 of his GOP colleagues to Pelosi and Lofgren regarding reports that Capitol Police have dug into the backgrounds of people who meet with lawmakers.

“Recent reports state that the Capitol Police are surveilling Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and their Capitol visitors,” Biggs told Fox News Digital in a Monday statement.

It’s in light of these revelations that Capitol Police have indeed been engaged in intelligence gathering which at times cross-sections into investigating House members, that Rep. Nehl alleges his office was tampered with illegally by an officer:

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.”

The civil rights implications are clear, and the oversight on Capitol Police is very different than that of other government agencies like the FBI, for example. Capitol Police are exempt from Freedom of Information Act Requests making it difficult to investigate these allegations from the outside.

In the case of Rep. Nehls, Capitol Police do not deny an officer entered his office, but they do deny any wrongdoing in the case.

Despite what Pelosi says, Capitol Police do report directly to the Speaker, as they’re overseen specifically by Congressional committees in the House and Senate, both Democrat-controlled at the moment. Pelosi will no doubt deny any involvement, that’s to be expected.

The monitoring and spying, if it is occurring, is likely related to Democrat-led investigations into January 6 and the attempt to try and tie GOP lawmakers to the riot.

On the flip side of that, the Capitol Police department itself has unanswered questions that several Republicans want investigated, so it has become a highly politicized agency currently under the umbrella of a Democrat-controlled Congress.

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Nate Ashworth

The Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Election Central. He's been blogging elections and politics for over a decade. He started covering the 2008 Presidential Election which turned into a full-time political blog in 2012 and 2016 that continues today.

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