House Speaker Mike Johnson: Nearly all Jan. 6 Capitol Hill security videos will be publicly viewable online

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a Friday statement said nearly all Capitol Hill security videos recorded on Jan. 6, 2021, will be made available online to the public.

What are the details?

Johnson's statement said that all the videos will be available online except those that contain sensitive security information or information that could lead to retaliation against private citizens.

Johnson praised the House Administration Committee's decision to make the videos available and added that "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, nearly 40,000 hours," according to the statement provided to Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker.

The House speaker added that about 90 hours of video will be released today — Friday, Nov. 17 — and that "we anticipate the rest of the footage will be posted over the next several months in waves." Baker noted that the videos will be available for online viewing through the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee Reading Room.

"This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media the ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials," Johnson added.

Johnson also said all videos will be reviewed before they're released, private citizens' faces will be blurred to protect them from retaliation, and that "an estimated 5% of videos" that may include sensitive security information "related to building architecture" won't be made available for online viewing.

Also, by Monday, every video — even the ones not available online — will be available for in-person viewing at the subcommittee offices in the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C., according to information Baker provided.

What's the background?

Prior to Johnson's announcement, Blaze News had been hard at work going through the videos and analyzing them in a limited capacity, as they had been available only for in-person viewing in Washington, D.C.

Baker's first analysis after countless hours in front of subcommittee office video terminals looking at frame after frame of Jan. 6 video had him wondering: did the security chief for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi perjure himself in the Oath Keepers trial?

The Truth About January 6youtu.be

Soon after, the slow pace of getting an unrestricted look at everything recorded on camera prompted Blaze Media editor in chief Matthew Peterson's appeal to Johnson late last month to release all the videos.

Johnson's Friday announcement also comes on the heels of a widely discussed rumor earlier this month that Blaze News was going to get all the videos.

Soon, U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) released video images from Jan. 6 showing the movements of the security chief covered in Baker's initial analysis. Loudermilk, chairman of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said in a statement to Baker that he released the still frames — from closed-circuit TV video with timestamps — of U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus because "an allegation of a Capitol Police officer lying under oath is very serious and must be fully investigated."

Baker's investigative efforts also resulted in two additional analyses, both focusing on U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn: "January 6 and the N-word that wasn't" and "Harry Dunn's account of January 6 does not add up. At all."

Capitol Officer Harry Dunn Exposed | The Truth About January 6youtu.be

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