By LUKE BARR, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Capitol Police confirmed Tuesday that an officer has been suspended pending an investigation after an anti-Semitic document was spotted near a security checkpoint.
A copy of the “Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion,” a notorious anti-Semitic tract, was seen on a table near a security checkpoint in the the Longworth House Office Building, photos obtained by ABC News show.
The document, held together with a binder clip, alarmed a congressional aide who viewed the document in plain sight Sunday and then alerted the Washington Post, which first reported the story.
“We take all allegations of inappropriate behavior seriously. Once this matter was brought to my attention, I immediately ordered the officer to be suspended until the Office of Professional Responsibility can thoroughly investigate,” acting chief Yogananda Pittman said in a statement.
The suspended officer was not identified.
As a result of the Jan. 6 insurrection, six other Capitol Police officers have been suspended and 35 are under investigation for their actions related to the attack, including how they interacted with the rioters, Pittman told a congressional subcommittee last month.
House Appropriations Legislative Subcommittee Chair Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said little when asked after the hearing if he could say more about why the officers were suspended.
“It seems like it’s nothing too dramatic, but it may be a lot of a few of those officers really stepping over the line when it comes to social media, and we’ll get more clarity, as it as it comes,” Ryan said.
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