{"id":8194,"date":"2025-04-11T16:06:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T16:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/house-republican-sues-capitol-police-for-2-5-million-over-2021-office-search\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T16:06:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T16:06:59","slug":"house-republican-sues-capitol-police-for-2-5-million-over-2021-office-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/house-republican-sues-capitol-police-for-2-5-million-over-2021-office-search\/","title":{"rendered":"House Republican sues Capitol Police for $2.5 million over 2021 office search"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A House Republican is suing the federal government for $2.5 million, claiming he was retaliated against by the Capitol Police four years ago for his vocal criticism of the department\u2019s leadership after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.<\/p>\n

Rep. Troy Nehls\u2019 unusual lawsuit<\/u><\/a>, filed in federal court in his home state of Texas, accuses the Capitol Police of improperly entering his office in November 2021 and taking pictures of a whiteboard that had notes related to legislation.<\/p>\n

The Capitol Police declined to comment on the lawsuit, but the department has long denied the allegations that leadership targeted Nehls for his criticism. An officer indicated he entered the office during a regular security sweep, according to a department report, because the door was left ajar and took pictures of the notes because he found them concerning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a Member’s office is left open and unsecured, without anyone inside the office, USCP officers are directed to document that and secure the office to ensure nobody can wander in and steal or do anything else nefarious,\u201d Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said after Nehls first surfaced his allegations<\/u><\/a> in 2022. \u201cThe weekend before Thanksgiving, one of our vigilant officers spotted the Congressman’s door was wide open. That Monday, USCP personnel personally followed up with the Congressman’s staff and determined no investigation or further action of any kind was needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Nehls called the actions part of an attempt to chill his criticism of the department. His lawyer, Terrell Roberts, has represented the family of Ashli Babbitt, a Jan. 6 rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to enter the lobby near the House chamber.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Nehls did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear why Nehls filed the civil claim in Texas rather than Washington, where his office is located and where the alleged breach took place. It\u2019s also unclear why he waited more than three years to file the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The Texas congressman, who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was one of a handful of Republicans initially selected by then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to serve on the panel investigating the Capitol riot, then withdrawn by McCarthy after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoed some of his other picks. Nehls continued to criticize the Capitol Police\u2019s handling of the events at the Capitol that day and called for a grand jury investigation of the officer who shot Babbitt.<\/p>\n

Nehls\u2019 lawsuit accuses the Capitol Police of violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights, as well as the Constitution\u2019s \u201cspeech or debate\u201d clause, which protects members of Congress from being questioned by authorities outside the legislative branch. However, the Capitol Police, as Nehls acknowledges, are housed within Congress, so it\u2019s unclear how that clause would be applied.<\/p>\n

Nehls\u2019 allegations against the Capitol Police sparked an inspector general investigation that concluded<\/u><\/a> in 2022 and undercut Nehls\u2019 claim of nefarious actions by the department. The inspector general recommended the department update its policies on how to handle open office doors in a way that \u201cstrikes the proper balance of protecting congressional representatives and their staff from physical outside threats while simultaneously protecting their legislative proposals and work product from possibly inappropriate photography, scrutiny, and questioning by USCP employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the report, the Capitol Police swiped at Nehls for \u201cspreading unfounded conspiracy theories\u201d about its officers\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A House Republican is suing the federal government for $2.5 million, claiming he was retaliated against by the Capitol Police four years ago for his vocal criticism of the department\u2019s leadership after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. Rep. Troy Nehls\u2019 unusual lawsuit, filed in federal court in his home state of Texas, accuses the Capitol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}