Rep. Clay Higgins says the Justice Department is withholding exculpatory evidence from police video and audio recordings that reveal hundreds of undercover law enforcement officers were among the rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and helped incite the attack.
He is seeking more than the closed-circuit security footage from the Capitol riot. He wants the Department of Justice to make public police body camera footage, cellphone video, Go-Pro-type recordings and transcripts of preserved police radio traffic.
“To the extent that I’ve been able to put my own two eyes on some of that evidence, there’s a common thread that is woven amongst the evidence that the DOJ conceals,” Mr. Higgins, Louisiana Republican, told The Washington Times.
The “common thread,” according to Mr. Higgins, is the FBI and Justice Department lawyers using video to prosecute Jan. 6 protesters but refusing to identify people caught on the same video engaged in the same activity. He suspects the rioters protected by the feds are undercover agents and informants.
“I have had access to some of the discovery evidence that that that some smart attorneys have forced the DOJ to release within the parameters of that criminal case,” said Mr. Higgins, a former law enforcement officer and Army veteran who has been assisting family members of some Jan. 6 defendants.
The judge released the digital evidence to the families with the condition that the material could not be made public, under threat of criminal prosecution.
Mr. Higgins said the DOJ is “zealously protecting” the digital evidence.
“It’s real hard to get to get a look at it, and the reason is quite clear,” he said. “They’re not sharing it with the world because it’s exculpatory. It shows evidence that contradicts the narrative that has been presented by the mainstream media.”
The Justice Department rejected Mr. Higgins’ theories.
“Claims made in court — that some in the mob were prompted to act by law enforcement or those affiliated with law enforcement — have been rejected by judges and juries, alike, after they have had a chance to review the evidence,” D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
It also said the DOJ provided Jan. 6 defendants and their lawyers with “access to more discovery than is required by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or the U.S. Constitution.”
“Indeed, the Department of Justice created databases to make it easier for those charged to access evidence, and the multiple databases currently have more than 10 terabytes of information, including, but not limited to, photos, videos, the contents of digital devices, more than 36,000 law enforcement reports and related attachments, and more than 200,000 tips provided to the FBI. This is, in all likelihood, the largest discovery project in the history of the Department of Justice,” the statement said.
Mr. Higgins credited House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, with continuing to release the closed-circuit security video from Jan. 6. But he said that the speaker doesn’t control all the video evidence, such as off-campus cameras and body cams worn by D.C. Metropolitan Police.
He said this trove of digital evidence needs to be made public to tell the whole story of the Capitol riot. The video evidence, according to the congressman, could include responding undercover officers or federal agents who dressed as Trump supporters and likely wore body cameras as part of their tactical gear.
“Whoever they worked for,” Mr. Higgins said.
According to Mr. Higgins, U.S. attorneys use digital evidence to identify defendants, but defense lawyers sometimes force the feds to identify other individuals in the same video. This has placed Justice and the FBI in difficult positions, he said, because there are individuals in the videos the government refuses to identify.
“When the DOJ says that they’re not able to identify those men because it could endanger their investigation,” he said. “They’re forced to confirm that they are not being prosecuted.”
He said it was a common occurrence at the trials and that’s how Mr. Higgins said he concluded there were at least a couple of hundred FBI “assets” at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“When those things are revealed within these criminal trials, the DOJ and FBI testify and say, ‘Well, that was them blending in,’” Mr. Higgins said.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray at a congressional hearing last year refused to answer Mr. Higgins’ questions about undercover FBI assets at the Capitol riot.
“You should not read anything into my decision not to share information on confidential human sources,” Mr. Wray told the lawmaker.
The Justice Department has prosecuted more than 1,250 people for their involvement in the Capitol riot, with more than 890 convicted.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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