- The Washington Times - Friday, March 1, 2024

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Barry Loudermilk announced Friday the release of 5,000 hours of footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol protest.

“House Republicans again commend Subcommittee Chairman Loudermilk and the entire Committee on House Administration for their ongoing commitment to ensuring that there is full transparency surrounding the events of January 6,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said in a statement.
 
Mr. Johnson called the video release necessary “considering the deeply flawed prior investigation conducted by the partisan January 6 select committee.”
 
He added, “Upon extensive further consultation with the committee, and at my direction, the committee will no longer plan to blur the faces of individuals in the footage, given the significant logistic hurdles involved and the importance of getting this work completed as responsibly and efficiently as possible.”

The committee says law enforcement agencies already have access to the raw footage.

Last November, the committee released the first tranche of footage, roughly 90 hours, with the promise that the rest of the more than 40,000 hours of footage would be posted over the next several months.

The House panel decided to publicly post online all footage that doesn’t contain sensitive security information or that could lead to retaliation against private citizens.

“My subcommittee’s investigation has always been about providing the American people with full transparency and complete accountability about what really happened on January 6, 2021,” Mr. Loudermilk, Georgia Republican, said in a statement. “As such, we have been working tirelessly to make public all U.S. Capitol Police CCTV footage from that day.”

According to Mr. Loudermilk, the footage will be made available to the public within the next few months without blurring or editing. The first batch is already available on the committee’s Rumble page.

All video footage previously released to media outlets was uploaded to an online viewing room for public access. This footage included a video released to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and other media outlets.
 
Making the footage available to the public has been a longtime goal of House Republicans and their supporters. Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, made it a condition when he stepped aside to let former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, win his short-lived speakership in January 2023.
 
The Justice Department has hunted down those involved in the Capitol protest and charged more than 1,200 with federal crimes.

Since Mr. McCarthy told reporters last year that he would release the footage, defendants in the Jan. 6 cases, their attorneys, news media and nonprofit groups have had limited access to the footage through congressional closed-circuit TV terminals.

• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.

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