U.S. Capitol police suspended an officer on Monday after a congressional assistant saw a copy of an anti-Semitic document near a Capitol Hill checkpoint on Sunday, The Washington Post reported.
Photographs obtained by the Post Office show a printed copy of the minutes of the meetings of the learned elders of Zion on a table at the security post within an entrance point to the Longworth House office building.
The booklet is described by the Anti-Defamation League as a ‘classic in paranoid, racist literature’ which claims to ‘spell out the alleged secret plans of Jewish leaders who want to achieve world domination’.
According to the Post, a staff member of the house noticed and photographed the papers around 7pm on Sunday as he was leaving the Longworth building from the entrance of South Capitol Street.
On Monday morning, the Post provided the photos to the Capitol police and asked for comment.
On Monday night, Capitol police said in a statement to The Hill that the acting head of the department, Yogananda Pittman, had ordered that an officer be suspended after the anti-Semitic material was discovered. The officer will remain suspended pending the outcome of an investigation by the department’s professional responsibility office.
“We take all allegations of misconduct seriously,” Pittman said in a statement. “After this matter was brought to my attention, I immediately ordered that the officer be suspended until the office of professional responsibility can thoroughly investigate.”
According to the Post, it is unclear to whom the document belongs when it was found. The photos show tattered and mottled pages held together by a tape clip, and a date stamp indicating that it was printed in January 2019, reports the Post.
Zach Fisch, the chief of staff of rep Mondaire Jones (DN.Y.), said he photographed the document and then provided it to The Post. Fisch said he was “extremely rumored” in the wake of the January 6 uprising rioters were seen wearing anti-Semitic clothing, including one person photographed wearing a shirt bearing ‘Camp Auschwitz’.
Some members of the Capitol Police Department were scrutinized for their actions during the riot in which videos show that rioters easily bypass security, including the violation of the Senate Chamber.