WASHINGTON – A group of lawmakers led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) visited the DC jail on Friday where Donald Trump supporters are being held for rioting at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The delegation consisted of House OveMembers of the rsight Committee investigating the unequal treatment of rioters on January 6th called Greene “political prisoners.”
D.C. prisons are notorious for their poor treatment of inmates, but Greene and committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) suggested they were only interested in the conditions of the rioters.
“The Committee is concerned by reports that the January 6 detainees faced a unique form of persecution based on their politics and beliefs, which represent a range of human rights abuses,” Comer and Greene wrote in a letter earlier this month.
The visit is part of a broader effort by House Republicans to pass off a violent attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters as a crowded tourist visit — and a pretext for “government weapons” against Trump supporters.
Most inmates in DC jails are city residents awaiting trial or sentencing or serving sentences for misdemeanor offenses. Non-violent offenders are usually not held in jail until their court date.
Greene said nonviolent Trump supporters have spent years in jail awaiting trial for simply walking on Capitol grounds. However, Greene did not name names.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice previously told HuffPost that most of the pretrial January 6 prisoners committed violent crimes and no one was charged with only misdemeanors.
Website Only Security obtained a list of 20 defendants in the Capitol riots held in the DC jail and reported this week that “all of them have been charged with committing serious criminal offenses,” such as assaulting a police officer.
About a thousands of people has been charged with crimes for his role in the riots.
This post will be updated.