If members of Congress aided Capitol attack, they should be prosecuted: Pelosi

[January 16, 2021]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that if members of Congress were found to have been accomplices to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, they should be prosecuted.

At a news conference, Pelosi was asked whether any actions would be taken against lawmakers who may have brought tours to the Capitol on Jan. 5, the day before the attack by pro-Trump rioters in which five people died, including a police officer, and dozens of people were injured.

"If in fact it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted the crimes, there have to be actions taken beyond the Congress, in terms of prosecution for that," Pelosi, a Democrat, said.

Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill has accused Republicans of inciting the Trump supporters, saying she saw colleagues leading groups on “reconnaissance” tours of the Capitol the day before the attack.

More than 30 House Democrats have asked the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms and the acting head of the Capitol Police for information about who was in the building on Jan. 5.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) attends her weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol in in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2021. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Pelosi also named retired Lieutenant General Russel Honoré to lead a security review of the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Howard Goller)

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