Media outlets ignore, slow to report police clear Loudermilk of Jan. 6 allegation he cased Capitol

Following the Capitol police chief on Monday clearing GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk of the false allegation made by members of the Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee that he led a group of protesters on a mission to case the Capitol building the day before the riot, few mainstream media outlets that jumped on the first several beats of the story have reported the ending. 

A number of outlets including CBS, CNN, NPR, Politico, Reuters, Roll Call and the Huffington Post reported stories about the letter sent to the Georgia lawmaker by committee leaders Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) probing the tour he gave several constituents on Jan. 5, 2021, and the GOP response to the letter led by Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis who called accusations that Loudermilk's tour "baseless." 

However, now that Loudermilk has officially been cleared, few of the outlets that were fast to document the accusations against him have recognized his innocence and the false allegation made against him by Thompson and Cheney.

However, The New York Times and The Washington Post, both of which reported the initial story, also reported Tuesday the police chief's statement of Loudermilk's innocence.

In a letter to Congress obtained by Just the News, Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger wrote that, following an exhaustive review of security footage, the force found no evidence that Rep. Loudermilk did anything on January 5 other than provide a tour to about a dozen constituents of some congressional office buildings. In fact, the congressman didn't even enter the U.S. Capitol building with the group. 

The January 6 select committee was previously forced to issue an apology to former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik for making the false allegation that he had attended a meeting in Washington, D.C. on January 5 to discuss preventing the certification of the Electoral College. In reality, Kerik was in New York and did not attend the meeting.