Legal Watchdog: D.C. Police Demand $1.57 Million To Release Jan. 6 Bodycam Footage
The Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department is charging the conservative legal watchdog, Judicial Watch, more than $1.5 million to access bodycam footage of the Jan. 6 Capitol protests.
On Tuesday, the non-profit published a press release outlining the department’s demands following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed last summer. Judicial Watch filed the suit after local law enforcement refused to release the footage in August 2021.
“The DC Metro Police initially rejected Judicial Watch’s request because, it claimed, the videos were, at the time, ‘part of an ongoing investigation and criminal proceeding,'” Judicial Watch said Tuesday. “But since President Trumps [sic] pardons of January 6 defendants, the DC government will make public the videos (supposedly containing over one thousand hours of footage) if Judicial Watch agrees to pay over $1.5 million.”
President Donald Trump pardoned nearly every defendant charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot immediately upon his second inauguration in January. The executive order granted “full, complete and unconditional pardons” to an estimated 1,500 people and commuted the sentences of another 14.
“We hope they come out tonight,” Trump said on the evening of his first night back in office. Many of those charged with misconduct just walked into the open Capitol building, and Jacob Chansley, infamously known as the “Q-Anon Shaman,” was even escorted around the building by law enforcement officials. Chansley was sentenced to 41 months in prison in the fall of 2021.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson covered the saga by airing security footage from the Capitol before abruptly leaving the network in 2023:
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in Tuesday’s press release, “There never has been a legitimate reason to withhold the January 6 police bodycam videos.”
“If they wanted the videos out for political reasons, they’d be public, but instead the DC government wants more than $1.5 million in order for the public to view its January 6 videos,” Fitton said.
Many questions remain unanswered about the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, after Democrats exploited their House majority to depict a partisan narrative with a Soviet-style inquisition, which both prosecuted political opponents and covered up former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s negligence.
Federalist Senior Editor John Davidson outlined what mysteries still remain about Jan. 6 in a speech earlier this year adapted for The Federalist. A primary question still open is the origins of the apparent pipe bombs discovered at the Republican and Democrat Party headquarters that were found to be “inoperable.”
“Why does the FBI still have no idea who planted the pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee on the evening of January 5?” Davidson asked. Other questions include why the Capitol Police opened the doors to allow demonstrators in and why Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was kept in the dark about the presence of federal informants in the crowd.
“Defenders of the official narrative accuse those who ask such questions of being conspiracists,” Davidson added. “But until those questions are answered, our understanding of January 6 — no matter our political leanings — will be incomplete.”
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