Leah Millis
@leahmillis
Photojournalist Washington, D.C. Spirit resides in Colorado www.leahmillis.com
National Guard troops keeping an eye on the fenced-off reflecting pool in DC last night. Photos: @leahmillis / @reuters
Taken by Salwan Georges, photojournalist recently fired from the Washington Post.
I've always struggled with self promotion, but I have learned that there is an argument to be made not only for getting the stories out there & educating the public about who we are and that we exist. Here's my intro video I made for TT. #photography #photojournalism #media #news music by @SunsO
Two days left to register! Join us, some of the things we will cover are LE tactics, weapons, PPE, IFAKs, mental health and digital security basics. #journalism #safety #protests #photojournalism
Four days left to register! Link in bio! Join us, some of the things we will cover are LE tactics, weapons, PPE, IFAKs, mental health and digital security basics. #journalism #safety #protests
Journalists! I’m teaching a workshop THIS WEEKEND APRIL 19th on the fundamentals of covering protests and civil unrest safely via Protect the Press. docs.google.com/forms/d/1W2B...
Eventually the ICE vehicles left the neighborhood, after circling the area or idling a block away for hours. No idea what they were doing.
For a short time on Saturday, the No Kings protest, the Blossom Kite Festival and the peak cherry blossom blooms all converged on the National Mall in DC. @leahmillis.bsky.social for @reuters.com
Yet again, I am begging y’all to credit the content you are sharing. Aside from it being the right thing to do, in this day and age, it really helps with media literacy and AI fakery. The CNN watermark is not enough, IMO. Took me abt 30s in Google to find Kenny Holston/NYT/Pool
Before boarding Marine One for travel to Mar-A-Lago, President Trump speaks to members of the media hours after posting a racist video clip portraying former President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes on his social media in Washington, DC, Feb 6, 2026. Photo: Leah Milis for Reuters
Reuters has found that one of the men ICE was looking for in Thao’s home, who has been pictured in a WANTED poster and mentioned repeatedly, recently today by ICE ERO acting exec assoc director Marcos Charles during a press conference is in prison in S. Minneapolis. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
UPDATE: We met ChongLy Thao, who goes by Scott, today along w his son, Chris. Scott told us about being taken, driven around til the agents figured out he was a U.S. citizen & not their alleged target, then dropped back off at home w no apology.Came back later and ICE was back, idling in the street.
Today in St. Paul: A house is raided by ICE agents and other law enforcement officers in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, January 18, 2026. REUTERS/Leah Millis
An incredible amount of teargas Wed evening after protesters and neighbors began to gather following reports of another shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis. photo by @leahmillis.bsky.social
My first @washingtonpost.com front page (lower) as a freelancer. This front page is a doozy. Thanks to @kamaria.bsky.social for the assignment.
Years later we are still learning of new details from the day. Narratives form, stories change. But our photographs & the video from that day are a constant that do not change and will always tell the truth.
Only then did I learn building had been breached, my friend (photog) inside was attacked. I climbed down. Fellow photogs sounded off to be sure we were accounted for. There had been death threats, assaults. We left together. There was a lot of violence against the media that the public is unaware of
I knew I had team members on the terrace level, so when I heard them yelling "heave-ho!" I decided to provide a different angle with a long lens. At this point I had no idea rioters had already broken inside. I stood up there, taking photos for about an hour. I got cell service for the first time..
At this point I took a risk, stepped away to the edge to try to find service as we had none at all & I needed to send photos. This was the one time in about... 7 hours that I took my gas mask off. I ended up getting mace in my eyes from my hair. After that, I decided to climb the scaffolding.
After they took the first floor and began fighting on the second near the tunnel, there was this moment where everyone was cheering and waving flags. Standing on the top of the scaffolding, all around me. I'll never forget looking around in that moment in shock. It looked like an old battle scene.
For hours it was chaos, fighting, yelling. I started mentally planning on where to go when they broke through the police line in front of me. I was afraid of being trapped and trampled, among other things.
For the 6th, some of these photos are subtle. The first one here demonstrates the crowd using each other many people deep to push on the police lines. The last one is one of many moments I saw flags used as spears.
Example: I only just noticed in the second photo here that one of the police officers is reaching for his gun. For me, this signifies something that is hard to describe to those not there: at any moment it felt as though bullets could fly, or a bomb could go off. Another detail: so many chemicals.
It became clear this thin line of police would not hold. A lot of the photos that never ran were like these: on any other day they would be crazy or interesting on their own. But because the day went so sideways, they fell to the wayside. Each time new details are found:
I started on the east side of the building. Suddenly a text came through: a group had broken through barricades on the west side. I bolted, thinking the police would quickly set a perimeter and access would be blocked. Upon arriving, my gas mask instincts told me it was already time to put it on.
We had teams all over. I was at the capitol, as I had been the vocal person on our team about safety concerns for the day. I was wearing a kevlar vest and I had my standard protest gear, my gas mask canister had already been through part of a year covering protests. Day started off tense, but calm.
Context for the 6th: many of us out covering the day had just spent the better part of 2020 covering protests and civil unrest. It was hard to go more than a few weeks without being pepper sprayed or tear-gassed. Those who covered Stop the Steal & Trump knew that J6 had violent potential.
This year I'm posting photos that I took on January 6, 2021 that are either previously unpublished or simply got lost in the sea of images that day. Over the past few years I have avoided looking at my take from that day.