Politico Names Names: Who Found the Photo "Inappropriate"

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Congressman Doug Lamborn (middle) (R-CO) stares at Maria Gunnoe (hair only visible in foreground, left) during another hearing his committee hosted on Sept. 26, 2011 in Charleston, W.Va. More info here: https://ohvec.org/newsletters/woc_2011_12/. Photo by Vivian Stockman.

According to a June 1 Politico article titled “Hill Republicans alert cops to activist’s ‘inappropriate’ photo” by Bob King and Erica Martinson:

Committee Republican spokesman Spencer Pederson said subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) “determined that that picture was inappropriate for committee use.” Pederson said full committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) agreed.

“Due to the nature of the photograph, senior committee staff made the decision to contact the U.S. Capitol Police and apprise them of the situation,” Pederson told POLITICO. “Capitol Police asked for a printed copy of the email and photograph, which was provided. As the photograph was inappropriate for a congressional hearing, committee staff notified the witness it would not be publicly displayed.

The Politico article is available to PoliticoPro subscribers here.

This Mother Jones post has an excellent summary of what went down.

Update: Congressman Lamborn’s staff is telling reporters that they did not request that the photo be barred from Maria’s testimony. They say that was the recommendation of the Natural Resources Committee staff, who approached the Congressman with their recommendation and he accepted their recommendation without looking at the photo.