(CNSNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not respond to repeated questions from CNSNews.com about whether American citizens who try to ask him a question in the Capitol hallway should be physically barred from doing so by Capitol Police--as happened recently when reporter Jason Mattera introduced himself, shook Reid’s hand, and asked him a question about how he became a millionaire on a government salary.

A plainclothes Capitol Hill policeman forcefully pushes journalist Jason Mattera into a wall after Mattera asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) a question. (Photo: Daily Surge.)

In several e-mails and telephone calls, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Reid’s office the following question: “Does Sen. Reid think that Americans should in any way be barred or intimidated from asking questions of members of the Senate walking in public hallways in a Senate office building?”

Reid’s office never responded.

Back on Sept. 16, a Capitol Hill police officer walking with Reid pushed Mattera into a wall, even though all Mattera did was ask Reid a question, which under the First Amendment of the Constitution any American has a right to do.

As captured on videotape by one of Mattera’s colleagues, Mattera, a journalist and author, walked along with Reid and several other people down one of the hallways in the Russell Senate Office Building.

From several feet away from Reid, Mattera said: “Hey Senator Reid. Hello, sir, let me introduce myself, Jason Mattera. (He shook Reid’s hand.) Hi.”

Mattera then asked: “How did you become so rich working in government? How does someone on a government salary most of their career accumulate your type of wealth?”

Journalist and author Jason Mattera. (Photo: Fox News.)

At that point, one of the men walking with Reid said to Mattera, “Are you press? Are you press?” and then physically pushed and pinned Mattera to the wall. The man, a plain-clothed Capitol Hill police officer, held Mattera and then held him longer as Mattera tried to move away.

Mattera said: “What are you doing? What are you doing holding me up like that?”

The man said: “I’m asking you a question. I’m asking you a question.”

Mattera said: “I’m Jason Mattera, author of Crapitalism. Seriously, you’re going to do this [as the man physically held hi]? Yes, I’m press. You’re going to do that to press?

“I don’t care if you’re press or not,” said the man, who then started to walk away.

“You don’t care? You’re going to rough up people like that?” said Mattera. “You don’t care if they’re press? What’s your name, sir? What’s your name, sir? What’s your name? I’m asking a question and you’re going to rough up the press like that? That’s how you do it?”

The man at that point was walking briskly away to catch up with Senate Majority Leader Reid and did not reveal his name.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Mattera is the author of the new book Crapitalism: Liberals Who Make Millions Swiping Your Tax Dollars, and the author of the New York Times best sellers Obama Zombies: How The Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation, and Hollywood Hypocrites: The Devastating Truth About Obama’s Biggest Backers. He is a former editor of Human Events and current publisher of Daily Surge.com.

“With a net worth as high as $6.7 million—and living arrangements that include permanent accommodations at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C.—Mattera believes taxpayers deserve answers about how Senator Reid made all his earnings while living on a government salary,” reported the Daily Surge.

Mattera told CNSNews.com that the response his question elicited was “emblematic of the disgust people have for D.C. and the arrogance in thinking that a taxpayer can be roughed up for asking a question about how tax dollars are being used by someone claiming to represent them.”

The bodyguard in the video was later identified as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police, who responded to the video Thursday with the following statement:

“The U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) became aware today of a video posted online showing an interaction between a Special Agent from our Dignitary Protection Division, and an unknown individual with no observable credentials approaching a Senator. The individual subsequently identified himself by name. Our Special Agent is a member of a leadership team assigned to provide security and protection to a Senator.”

“In accordance with applicable training when encountering an unidentified individual in close proximity to a protectee who is encroaching on the protectee's zone of security, the Special Agent is expected to take proactive measures to maintain the security and protection of their protectee.”

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Mattera criticized the USCP’s statement saying they would not answer his main question: “This Capitol Hill police officer, plainclothes police officer assigned to Reid, did he assault and physically attack someone asking him (Reid) a question?”

“Clearly, the senator’s life wasn’t in danger, there was no explosive element. It was just one calm question, and then the guy choking me up and slamming me up against the wall,” said Mattera.

He also said that while he was not wearing press credentials, the hallway of the Russell Senate Office Building where the incident took place is an area accessible to the public. Any person can enter the building after going through the security check, which includes a metal detector and x-ray screening machine and is staffed by several police officers.

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“I can be with the media, which I am, or I could have been a tourist or an intern or just a taxpaying American concerned about how the majority leader is getting rich,” Mattera told CNSNews.com. “Whoever I’d be with doesn’t justify the assault and battery that took place for calmly asking Senator Reid a question, which conservatives have been asking for a while. How do you enter politics broke and leave rich?”

He noted that he had to go through a metal detector to even enter the Senate building.

Mattera further said the USCP has been “unresponsive to say the least,” to his multiple requests for answers to the following questions: “Has this individual been reprimanded? What is the justification for the assault? If there is a justification, please provide one.”

CNSNews.com also asked Senator Reid’s office if the senator believes that what the Capitol Hill police officer did to Mattera is acceptable behavior for a federal employee and if the senator is going to apologize to Mattera. The Majority Leader’s office did not respond before this story was posted.

“Some Republicans in the Senate ought to speak out and file an ethics complaint,” conservative talk-radio host Mark Levin said of the incident in an Oct. 2 interview with Mattera.

According to the Associated Press, as reported May 17, 2014, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is worth between $2.9 million and $6.7 million.