Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas—once fired from the Richmond, Texas, Police Department for reasons including destruction of evidence—has accused the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) of illegally snooping around his office.

The Capitol Police responded Tuesday: Nehls left his door wide open, so per protocol, the room was secured for him. 

“If 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,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement Tuesday, roughly two hours after Nehls unleashed a conspiracy-laden Twitter screed. 

Nehls claims that an officer was first caught “in the act” entering his office on Nov. 20 and was busy photographing “confidential legislative products.” Nehls claims a second breach was made on Nov. 22, this time by three U.S. Capitol Police intelligence officers. 

The plot thickened, according to the congressman, when his staff discovered “special agents dressed like construction workers” afoot: 

Nehls went on to claim that the Capitol Police failed to inform him there was an investigation into himself or any member of his staff. 

USCP rebuffed the lawmaker’s allegations on Tuesday: “The 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. No case investigation was ever initiated or conducted into the Representative or his staff.” 

A portion of the letter sent to Nehls from Chief Manger circulated online Tuesday and was posted by Newsmax reporter Logan Ratick. The letter noted that the department had received a message from Nehls on Jan. 26 and “as we discussed on Jan. 21,” Manger wrote, law enforcement entered his office while doing a routine patrol in the building. 

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Kevin Dias, the letter states, saw that Nehls’ door was “wide open” and went inside to see if anyone was there. He announced his presence and entered the office. 

“He did not see anyone inside but did see the words ‘body armor’ on a white board along with a marking of an ‘X’ on a rough map of the Rayburn Building,” Manger wrote. “Concerned that this was possibly a threat, he took a photograph of it and contacted our Command Center. The matter was then referred to special agents in our Protective Services Bureau.” 

The assigned agents, Manger added, then spoke to Nehls staff the very next week and “received a satisfactory explanation for the writings on the whiteboard. The matter was then closed and no further action taken by the Department.”

Nehls claims the alleged incident occurred because he has taken a public stance against the probe into the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

He also cited his public criticism of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as another possible reason for the alleged illegal surveillance. 

The Texas Republican was handpicked by GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy last July to serve on the then-burgeoning Jan. 6 commission. Nehls was widely hailed as a solid pick from McCarthy, given Nehls’ conduct during the Capitol assault. 

He was one of several congressmen in the House chamber who refused to leave as the mob ensued and other legislators were being escorted out. 

Nehls told Texas Monthly that he and others like Texas Reps. Ronny Jackson, Pat Fallon, and Tony Gonzales were willing to stay in the chamber and use their military experience to help officers hold the line. When one rioter broke through the glass at the chamber door, Nehls said he tried to talk the rioter down through that hole. 

“I said, This is un-American. You have to stop banging on these doors because these gentlemen here, they have their guns drawn and they’ll shoot and kill you,” Nehls said in the interview published on the attack’s first anniversary. 

Nehls was also on the floor until just after Ashli Babbitt, a U.S. Air Force veteran, had attempted to breach a window in the Speaker’s lobby and was subsequently shot by an officer who warned her multiple times to stand down. After those shots were fired, he was finally escorted off the floor.

A year and a month later, however, and long after the investigation into Babbitt’s death was closed and no wrongdoing was found, Nehls appeared on Tuesday to perpetuate a popular narrative among right-wing conspiracy theorists about Babbitt’s death, namely that it was “murder,” 

Nehls has developed a pattern of flip-flopping on matters related to Jan. 6, as noticed by Olivia Beavers last October:  

Nehls never had his shot on the Jan. 6 committee because McCarthy ultimately withdrew his name and every other Republican he proposed for the panel after Speaker Pelosi rejected two of his selections: Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana. 

Nehls has been hypercritical of the select committee and he’s been equally adamant that law enforcement on Capitol Hill was to blame for the lackluster response to the attack. Nehls has so far refused to cast any blame on Trump for the riot and has defended Trump’s speech from the Ellipse. 

He cast his objection to the certification of the electoral votes for Joe Biden on Jan. 6, as well. 

Nehls told Texas Monthly in January he thinks “something is fishy” about how the riot began and he has peddled the same “Jan.6-was-started-by-the-Deep-State” conspiracy theories that right-wing darlings like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson have served up on their respective programs for months.