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If Jan 6 Was So Significant, Why Is So Much Official Video Footage Being Suppressed?

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For the last few years, the media has told us that Trump was a dangerous authoritarian. Then they told us that Jan 6 was an insurrection and threat to democracy. Then why hide the video?

A government that answers to ‘we the people’ should put a premium on transparency, should it not? In that case, why do those in authority not trust us enough to demonstrate transparency with the most serious threat to our republic — as Dems and a couple of RINOs have described it — since what, the Civil War? Maybe 1812? Hard to say, their preferred narrative metaphors keep shifting.

We’ve seen footage from some hand-held cellphone recordings taken that day. But as for official footage, it’s been hard to come by. This is intentional.

Capitol Police are by no means a neutral party in the events of the day. Footage of the day will say as much about the actions that were (or were not) taken by Capitol Police as it would about the crowd that pushed their way into the Capitol Building.

But, aside from selective clips provided to bolster Pelosi’s Impeachment Proceedings, that footage is not being made available to those who want to see it — not even when they have every lawful right to gain access to it.

But thousands of hours of real-time footage is in the hands of the Capitol Police—and that agency, along with government lawyers and federal judges, is using every legal trick possible to keep the trove hidden from the public even as clips are presented in court as evidence against hundreds of January 6 defendants.

According to an affidavit filed in March by Thomas DiBiase, the Capitol Police department’s general counsel, the building is monitored 24/7 by an “extensive system of cameras” positioned both inside and outside the building as well as near other congressional offices on the grounds.

The system captured more than 14,000 hours of footage between noon and 8 p.m. on January 6; the archive was made available to two Democratic-controlled congressional committees, the FBI, and the D.C. Metropolitan Police department. (After a request by Congress, the agency reportedly handed over footage from the entire 24-hour period.) — AmericanGreatness

Clips are used as evidence against the defendants. So, by law you would expect the defendants to have full access to footage important to their legal defense, right?

But Capitol Police argue that making all the tapes available to defense attorneys —let alone to the American public—could provoke future violence. “The Department has significant concerns with the release of any of its footage to defendants in the Capitol attack cases unless there are safeguards in place to prevent its copying and dissemination,” DiBiase wrote March 17. “Our concern is that providing unfettered access to hours of extremely sensitive information to defendants who already have shown a desire to interfere with the democratic process will . . . [be] passed on to those who might wish to attack the Capitol again.”

The Justice Department, in numerous cases, is seeking protective orders to rigorously limit how surveillance video is handled by defense attorneys. Recordings have been deemed “highly sensitive” government material subject to onerous rules; the accused only have access to the evidence in a supervised setting. Clips cannot be copied, downloaded, shared, or reproduced in any fashion.

“Defense counsel may not provide a copy of Highly Sensitive materials to Defendant or permit Defendant to view such materials unsupervised by defense counsel or an attorney, investigator, paralegal, or support staff person employed by defense counsel,” Judge Amit Mehta wrote in a protective order related to the conspiracy case against members of the Oath Keepers. “The parties agree that defense counsel or an attorney, investigator, paralegal, or support staff person employed by defense counsel, may supervise Defendant by allowing access to Highly Sensitive materials through a cloud-based delivery system that permits Defendant to view the materials but does not permit Defendant the ability to download.” — ZeroHedge

Journalists are being stonewalled.

Defense attorneys are denied reasonable access to evidence that might help their clients.

Footage for January 5th (the date the pipe bomb is said to have been planted) seems not to have been preserved.

Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request that included (among other things)

Congress exempts itself from the Freedom of Information Act, and the Capitol Police declined to produce any records about the riot to Judicial Watch, writing in a February 11, 2021, letter that the requested emails and videos are not “public records.”

“The public has a right to know about how Congress handled security and what all the videos show of the US Capitol riot,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “What are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer trying to hide from the American people?” — JudicialWatch, February 16

It should surprise nobody to learn that Judicial Watch, too, was stonewalled.

The Democrats have weaponized this story and are building policy on the claims they are making. It is in their best interest to have a story that cannot be contradicted by evidence.

But we have already seen their official narrative contradicted by evidence. The most glaring example of that was the death of Officer Swetnick. While we mean no diresprect to the loss his family suffered, it makes a huge difference to the facts on the ground whether he died from the acts of violent men who stormed the Capitol, or if he died from natural causes like a stroke.

It was only after they had milked the fact of his death to entrench and cement the idea of a violent and murderous rampage on the Capitol in the mind of the public that they finally, reluctantly, and under pressure released the details of his true cause of death.

If they have been misleading us with the events surrounding the death of Officer Swetnick to advance a political agenda or the claim that it was an ‘armed insurrection’ (in which no guns were confiscated) what else are they lying about?

We have a right to know.

As the American Greatness article concluded:

A president was impeached for his alleged role. Republican lawmakers continue to face threats for objecting to the election results in swing states. And millions of Trump voters, by extension, are considered conspiracy theorists and wannabe “insurrectionists.”

There’s only one reason why the Justice Department wants to keep the footage under seal: it contradicts most if not all of the claims advanced by Democrats and the media over the past four months.

Republicans, to the extent they can or will, and the media should demand the release of all the footage. Ditto for families of the defendants. The American public still doesn’t know exactly what happened on January 6—and it’s clear the government will use any means necessary to keep it that way. — AmericanGreatness

That’s something to think about.

Wes Walker

Wes Walker is the author of "Blueprint For a Government that Doesn't Suck". He has been lighting up Clashdaily.com since its inception in July of 2012. Follow on twitter: @Republicanuck

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