We covered last month how a group on Stephen Colbert's show was arrested by the Capitol Police in the Capitol complex located in the Longworth House Office Building – among the office spaces that are used by House members.
Capitol Police responded to a disturbance report on the sixth floor of the building around 8:30 p.m. on the 16th of June. The police found the Colbert crew, who were unescorted (you must be taken away by Congressional staff if you're inside an office). They were ordered to get out earlier in the morning, so the police charged them with illegal entry.
In the words of Fox's Chad Pergram in a thread on Twitter, the group had received interviews with lawmakers in Congress early in the morning that included Schiff as well as Auchincloss. Then, an aide of Auchincloss claimed to have allowed them back in the building around 4 p.m. However they did not leave; they walked around the halls in the dark, without supervision, for long periods. They were ultimately detained in front of Boebert's office.
They were initially admitted at the request of Rep. Adam Schiff's staff, but they were allowed back into the building later that day. They were reported to be in the hallways unsupervised for hours, taking photos in front of the doors to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and banging on the doors of lawmakers in Congress.
Now, word has come from the U.S. Attorney's Office as to whether they'll be investigating the case against the Colbert crew — and you would have known the answer to this question the moment you heard about the investigation and the people involved.
From Deadline:
In an official statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. said that they couldn't pursue charges as the detained “were invited by Congressional staffers to enter the building in each instance and were never asked to leave by the staffers who invited them, though, members of the group had been told at various points by the Capitol Police that they were supposed to have an escort.” [….]
The U.S. Attorney's Office said that in order to bring charges, “the office would be required to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the invited guests committed the offense of illegal entry, because their escort decided to leave them in the absence of security. We don't believe it is likely that the office will be able to secure and hold convictions for these charges.”
Let's take a look.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) was visited by constituents at his office the day of Jan. 5th, 2021. His staff took them through the building and took photos, and then left. They weren't in the Capitol Building and they left at the end of the day. They weren't in the building at night and they did not knock upon the windows of the members of Congress or threaten anyone. However, the Democrats were falsely accusing Loudermilk of permitting people into the building to conduct reconnaissance, of which there was not any evidence. However, Democrats say that visitors are free to roam around at their leisure and bang on the doors.
On Jan. 6, some defendants claimed that they were permitted entry by the police and at the very least, one was found not guilty on this ground. He was allowed in, but did not do any other thing. So far as I can tell we've never seen the DOJ choose not to investigate anyone during January. 6 individuals because of this.
Are we able to say that there are two justice systems? It seems that way.
