(WXYZ) — Police in Washington D.C. are on alert after another threat to the U.S. Capitol. The House will not be in session on Wednesday after officials received word of a potential plot by a militia group, but the Senate is planning to meet.
It comes about two months after the deadly riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6 that left several people dead and hundreds charged for storming the building.
Capitol police say they are aware of the potential threat and are ready to protect Congress, and there are still thousands of Michigan National Guard troops in D.C.
It all stems from a disturbing conspiracy theory that Donald Trump will actually be inaugurated on March 4, which was the date of the presidential inauguration around 100 years ago.
ABC News obtained an internal document from Capitol Police saying "an unidentified group of (militia violent extremists) discussed plans to take control of the U.S. Capitol and remove Democratic lawmakers."
"I think we need to re-establish deterrents and show that if you threaten or use violence, there's going to be consequences to that," Rep. Elissa Slotkin said.
“This is a real security threat and so there is a lot of anxiety a lot of concern,” said Michigan Congressman Dan Kildee.
“What the Capitol police has been monitoring is chatter among these groups and they’ve seen some of the right wing militia groups seriously planning credible threats to the US Capitol scheduled for the next couple of days,” Kildee said.
Capitol police have taken appropriate strides to secure the Capitol building including establishing a physical structure and increasing manpower around the Capitol to protect congress, the public, and police officers. Kildee says he’s noticed the increased protection.
“There’s a pretty significant increase in Capitol police presence, some tactical units deployed, we don’t talk a lot about the security measures that are being taken because that would undermine their effectiveness, but I think it is clear that security has been stepped up quite a bit,” he said.
