Why Capitol Police offered tours to Oath Keeper lawyers

Prosecutors revealed the planned tours in court papers filed Friday morning.

Leaders of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia network, stand accused of forcing their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6 amid a mob of Donald Trump supporters seeking to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election. Now, Capitol Police are offering tours of the building to their lawyers.

The department has begun arranging the tours for the Oath Keepers' attorneys as they build their defenses against the Justice Department's charges, some of the gravest lodged in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

Prosecutors revealed the planned tours in court papers filed Friday morning. A dozen members of the Oath Keepers stand charged with conspiracy for their role in the Capitol breach on Jan. 6. The Justice Department says they planned to try to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory and eventually decided their best course was to infiltrate the Capitol to achieve that goal. The case against them is one of the gravest presented so far in the hundreds of prosecutions to emerge from the Capitol breach.

According to prosecutors, the plans for the tour have hit some turbulence due to "prohibitions that the Capitol Police have placed on taking photographs during the tour."

"While we resolve those issues, I still encourage you to sign up for dates," assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy wrote to the defense attorneys in a letter accompanying the court filing.

The Capitol Police declined to comment on the scheduled tours or the photograph restrictions.