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Three police officers appear to be among those chanting “drain the swamp” and “Whose house? Our house!” as protesters invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, the government said in a federal court document filed Friday.
The actions were recorded on GoPro video by a Metropolitan Police officer stationed at the Capitol “in an evidence-gathering capacity,” the document said.
The government’s filing involves the case of a Kansas man charged with multiple felonies in connection with the Capitol riot. William Pope, of Topeka — who is representing himself — has asked the judge to release videos in his case that he says show undercover Metropolitan Police officers inciting protesters to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The footage, from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Electronic Surveillance Unit, “captures the officer shouting words to the effect of ‘Go! Go! Go!’ … ‘Go! Go! Go!’ … and ‘Keeping going! Keep going!’ apparently to the individuals in front of him on the balustrade of the U.S. Capitol’s northwest staircase around 2:15 p.m,” the government’s filing said.
“At other times in these videos, the officer and the two other plain clothes officers with him appear to join the crowd around them in various chants, to include ‘drain the swamp,’ ‘U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!’, and ‘whose house? Our house!’”