House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters earlier this week that the video surveillance footage of the Jan. 6 Capitol Building riot that is being released to the public will have faces of demonstrators blurred out to avoid retribution by Joe Biden’s Justice Department, among others.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the Louisiana Republican said, per The Hill: “We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ and to have other concerns and problems.”
“We’re working steadily on it. And we’ve hired additional personnel to do that,” Johnson added. “And all of those tapes, ultimately at the end, will be out so everybody can see them.”
After Johnson’s comments, his deputy chief for communications clarified that the blurring is essential to thwart any potential forms of retaliation. He emphasized that the Department of Justice (DOJ) already has access to the unedited footage.
“Faces are to be blurred from public viewing room footage to prevent all forms of retaliation against private citizens from any non-governmental actors. The Department of Justice already has access to raw footage from January 6, 2021,” Deputy Chief for Communications Raj Shah tweeted.
The Hill reported: The House Administration Oversight Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), has led the effort to re-investigate Jan. 6 and the Democratic-controlled select committee that probed the attack—and particularly former President Trump’s role in it—in the last Congress.
Before Johnson released the first batch of surveillance video shortly after he took over as Speaker, he said that processing of the clips “will involve blurring the faces of private citizens on the yet-unreleased tapes to avoid any persons being targeted for retaliation of any kind.”
“I don’t think partisan elected officials in Washington should present a narrative and expect that it should be seen as the ultimate truth,” Johnson said of the Capitol riot.
“The release of the January 6 tapes is a critical exercise. We want transparency,” Johnson added. “House Republicans trust the American people to draw their conclusions.”
“When I ran for Speaker, I promised to make accessible to the American people the 44,000 hours of video from Capitol Hill security taken on January 6, 2021. Truth and transparency are critical. Today, we will begin immediately posting video on a public website and move as quickly as possible to add to the website nearly all of the footage, more than 40,000 hours,” Johnson noted further in an X post.
