Jan. 6 prisoners claim guards abused them, denied them medical, religious services: GOP Rep. Nehls

On the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, disturbance at the U.S. Capitol, Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls revealed that the imprisoned participants in that incidents complained to him of abuse from their guards and claimed they had been denied access to religious services and medical treatment.

Nehls on Friday recalled his Thursday visit to a prison housing Jan. 6 prisoners on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show, saying "I had an opportunity to visit. A couple of my staffers went with me and when we pulled up to the jail, there was a whole entourage. We had everybody there from Mayor Bowser's office, I mean, we had the head cheese there."

"[W]e spent about an hour and 15 minutes," he continued. "They knew I was coming because the place smelled very, very clean. Almost to the point that was irritating my eyes with the bleach. But here nor there. We were there."

"[W]e had a an opportunity to go visit the J Sixers, the detainees in their tank, and there are about 21 of them there," he said. "Many of them were there for pretrial confinement had about 15 minutes and and listen to them. They're concerned. They said that their grievances are not being heard."

"They also said that they're not getting the the adequate medical treatment, which is should be, as well as they were concerned about not having access to religious services," he continued. "And there was one specific individual in there that was concerned about the assaults, the physical assaults that have been taking place against these individuals, by corrections officers. And I'm really looking into that I want body camera video from the officers to confirm or deny with what these J six detainees are telling me is truthful."

Nehls announced in a Friday press release that his office intended to file Freedom of Information Act requests for video footage pertaining to the Jan. 6 defendants' claims. Just the News has requested comment from the D.C. Department of Corrections.

The Texas Republican previously authored a book entitled "The Big Fraud," discussing the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and the errant reporting and political narratives surrounding the event. Host John Solomon pressed Nehls on the Capitol Police's preparations and response to the episode, questioning whether a Republican-led Congress would pursue investigations into the event and its fallout.

"I would love to help lead that effort," Nehls responded, acknowledging that GOP leader Kevin McCarthy had previously expressed an interest in such inquiries. "Because we need to release all the video we need to have everything. The American people need to hear a little bit about transparency, because they haven't heard it from [Rep.] Bennie Thompson [D-Miss.] and his sham [Jan. 6] committee."

"So I'm hoping Kevin understands how important this is. When you look at that sham report 400 And something 80 pages... Donald Trump's name is mentioned 4200 times," he asserted.

On the matter of McCarthy's bid for speaker, Nehls contended that the roughly 20 Republicans who have resisted voting for him to lead the lower chamber of Congress, have squandered some of their political clout for an unnecessary effort to hold the California Republican to conservative governance.

"I think our battle and our fight well, one is when you know we get the committee assignments selected. And if McCarthy is our speaker, we have a four seat majority," he observed. "Kevin McCarthy knows that there's 222 of us. And if he wants to pass anything meaningful in this Congress in this session, he's going to have to work with the members of the Freedom Caucus."

"And I said that's where we can have these, these discussions. And we can move Kevin to the right," he continued. "So I just thought that we should put this issue to bed with the speaker's race. We can hold Kevin McCarthy accountable with the numbers that we have. We will move him to the right."

The House of Representatives has adjourned until 10 p.m. on Friday evening, at which time Nehls expressed optimism that McCarthy will have negotiated a deal with his detractors to elect him to the chamber's top job.

"Hopefully when we reconvene back at 10 o'clock tonight. We can get there and we can all go home. Amen to that," he concluded.