2 Seattle police officers illegally trespassed while rioters stormed the Capitol

Two Seattle police officers illegally trespassed while rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to a police watchdog.

The Seattle Office of Police Accountability (OPA) began an investigation days after the attack on the Capitol after the police department was made aware that two of its officers were in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6.

Over the next two weeks, four other Seattle officers admitted to being in D.C. that day. None of the officers were on duty.

In a report released Thursday, the office determined two of the officers stood next to the Capitol in a prohibited  area.

One of the officers said he went to the Capitol because former President Trump asked for people to “walk up and be peaceful.” He said he attended to exercise his First Amendment rights and support a free and fair election.

The second officer said she went to D.C. to listen to people speak at the rally. She stated that when she got to the Capitol, she saw people peacefully standing on the lawn around the building.

The female officer also said she was only made aware that she may have trespassed when she read a news article that OPA’s investigation began.

But the FBI provided stills from a video taken by someone else, showing the officers smiling while in close proximity to the Capitol while rioters were climbing the scaffolding the parameters of the building.

The report concluded that the accounts of the two officers were “simply not credible,” adding that the video still “serves to undermine the officers’ assertions that they did not have notice that they were trespassing.”

The office’s discipline counsel recommended they be terminated.

The Seattle Police Department said in a statement that Police Chief Adrian Diaz intends to issue his disciplinary decision within the next 30 days.

As for the four other officers, the report concluded that three of them did not violate policy or engage in illegal activity while in D.C. The office could not establish if the fourth officer committed a crime or violated policy.