'Charges for lawmakers who aided riot'

Security personnel stand guard outside the Capitol. Pic/AFP

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has suggested that any lawmaker found to have assisted in the January 6 storming of the Capitol in Washington DC should face
criminal charges.

"We must trust each other, respect the people who sent us here. We must also have the truth, and that will be looked into," Pelosi said.

"If, in fact, it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted the crime, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress, in terms of prosecution for that," she added.

Pelosi's remarks came as several Democrats have already expressed their suspicions that some Republican lawmakers might have helped the rioters.

A group of Democrats wrote a letter to Capitol Police chief urging probes into "suspicious behaviour and access" facilitated by some Republican lawmakers on January 5.