By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley said that pro-Trump demonstrators who invaded the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday also ransacked his office and stole a laptop.
In a video posted to Twitter late on Wednesday, the Democratic senator from Oregon showed how the protesters left his office full of debris, disordered cabinets, strewn files, and a cigarette butt.
“They stole the laptop that was sitting on the table,” he said at one point, as his camera panned over an empty desk.
Merkley’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Thursday about the incident or what was in the laptop.
Concerns over the digital integrity of information kept by lawmakers at the Capitol have been mounting as law enforcement weighs the damage from the riot, which happened after outgoing President Donald Trump told supporters gathered in Washington he would “never concede” the election he lost to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden.
(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
