By Julie Kelly
A consortium of major media companies is suing the Justice Department and the FBI for ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain the still-secret recordings of January 6.
Matthew Graves just received a court summons.
As the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Graves is rarely on the receiving end of a legal inquiry. In fact, Graves’ hand must be tired from signing thousands of criminal indictments, sentencing memos, and plea offers related to his ongoing investigation into the events of January 6, 2021. Just this week, the FBI arrested two more individuals on minor offenses, giving Graves’ overstaffed office more fresh meat for the Justice Department’s vengeful retaliation against Americans who protested the certification of Joe Biden’s election that day.
No investigative technique is too invasive for Graves’ henchmen to use in court proceedings. Big Tech, banking institutions, airlines, hotels, and other private interests work hand-in-glove with the Justice Department to hunt down Trump supporters and track their every movement before and on January 6. Much of the evidence consists of video footage captured by Capitol police’s closed-circuit television system during the breach of the building. Investigators routinely include still shots of the surveillance video in criminal complaints.
But now Graves is under pressure from all sides to make the video footage public. A consortium of major media companies is suing Graves and the FBI for ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain the still-secret recordings. As I’ve reported since May 2021, the entire trove was designated “highly sensitive” government material shortly after the investigation began. Clips entered as evidence in January 6 cases are under strict protective orders.
Over the past two years, a group called the Press Coalition filed motions seeking to unseal video clips in numerous cases, however, it never requested access to the full archive of footage. That changed after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy allowed Fox News host Tucker Carlson to view the videos and air selected clips in February.
Lawyers representing the group—which includes CNN, the New York Times, and Politico among other outlets—wrote congressional leaders to demand “all closed-circuit camera footage recorded on January 6, 2021, inside the United States Capitol and on its surrounding outside grounds.”
In what might be a first, news organizations commended McCarthy. “The Speaker also explicitly recognized the overriding public interest in disclosure: ‘I was asked in the press about these tapes, and I said they do belong to the American public. I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment,’” the letter quoted McCarthy.
“The Press Coalition agrees with the Speaker. Now that the CCTV videos have been released to one member of the news media—one whose program is categorized by its own network as opinion programming—they must be released to the rest of the news media as well.” To bolster its request, the group filed FOIAs with the executive office of the U.S. attorneys and the FBI seeking copies of the videos.
A month later, the group filed a motion to intervene in the criminal case of William Pope, a January 6 defendant representing himself. Pope has been fighting to gain access to footage recorded by both surveillance and police body-worn cameras. In discrediting the Justice Department’s insistence that releasing the CCTV recordings would pose a security threat, the press coalition noted that the government had no such “security” concerns when video clips were aired during Trump’s second impeachment and by the January 6 select committee during televised hearings.
“Because the public already has access to an enormous volume of CCTV videos from inside the Capitol, the Government likewise cannot demonstrate that permitting Defendant to republish other CCTV videos would pose any further threat to the security of the Capitol,” the group’s lawyers wrote in the March 23 filing. “Especially when weighed against the public’s interest in viewing videos of ‘the most significant assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812,’ the Government cannot justify maintaining its designation of the CCTV videos as ‘Sensitive’ or ‘Highly Sensitive.’”
Graves’ office shot back, insisting the security designation was appropriate and questioning the press coalition’s standing in the matter.
The full trove of video, Graves argued, isn’t a “judicial” record so media access should be limited; only clips produced as evidence in specific cases would qualify as such. Graves also suggested “militants” could study the footage in order to plan another attack on the Capitol.
Their standing is they (supposedly) serve the public interest. It is blatantly obvious what the purpose of keeping the video suppressed is. From what we’ve already seen, they are trying to conceal the fact that there was no “violent insurrection”. It was the very definition of a “mostly peaceful” protest that, without FBI instigation, would have never been inside the capital nor in any way violent.
Have those who busted out the windows been arrested, or are they exempt for some reason? Have the scores of FBI assets been identified and deposed? Have the Capital Police that opened fire on the peaceful crowd been questioned as to WHY they opened fire? Further, like some cities have done with BLM/ANTIFA protesters, have the January 6th protesters been compensated for their pain and suffering?
Without having access to the video, how can a defendant or defense attorney determine what applies? Democrats can splash whatever video they feel feeds their narrative, replete with fake sound track (probably lifted from phone videos of previous BLM/ANTIFA riots for ultimate realism) but those threatened with extensive prison sentences for “trespassing” and “parading” can’t have access to exculpatory (and it exculpates the HELL out of the government’s case) evidence? Bullshit.
How about not cheating in any more elections and providing the necessary security at the Capital? Get Democrats and the FBI out of process and all should be fine. The FBI was pretty effective at infiltrating militia groups; maybe if the did this to STOP riots (get inside BLM and ANTIFA for some REAL fun) instead of financing and promoting the members to get involved in dangerous operations. Oh, hell… that’s just crazy talk.
Maybe they only looked at night, when it’s HARD to solve crimes.