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The Capitol Police do not want anyone to see what they have on video and in emails from the January 6 incident at the Capitol that many Democrats have called an insurrection.
Judicial Watch has announced that the Capitol Police are looking to shut down a lawsuit brought by the conservative watchdog that seeks to obtain the emails and videos that the Capitol Police have now argued are “not public record.”
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in February 2021 under the common law right of access to public records after the Capitol Police refused to provide any records in response to a January 21, 2021, request for:
- Email communications between the U.S. Capitol Police Executive Team and the Capitol Police Board concerning the security of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The timeframe of this request is from January 1, 2021 through January 10, 2021.
- Email communications of the Capitol Police Board with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concerning the security of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The timeframe of this request is from January 1, 2021 through January 10, 2021.
- All video footage from within the Capitol between 12 pm and 9 pm on January 6, 2021.
“The USCP’s camera security system, including footage recorded by it within the Capitol and sought by [Judicial Watch], is solely for national security and law enforcement purposes,” The Capitol Police said.
“Access to video footage from the USCP’s camera security system is limited to narrow circumstances and strictly controlled by USCP policy.
“The USCP has not made any public disclosures of video footage from January 6 from its camera security system,” it said to the court.
“There are currently pending criminal investigations and prosecutions of individuals involved in the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“There are currently pending congressional investigations into the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” it said.
In the motion filed by the USCP Capitol Police, it claimed that the case should be closed because even if the videos and emails are “public records,” as Judicial Watch believes, the Capitol Police’s interests in confidentiality “outweigh any public interest in those materials.”
It also claimed that it does not have access to many of the emails that Judicial Watch has requested.
“To cut to the chase, the US Capitol Police is hiding a reported 14,000 hours of January 6 video from the American people to help Nancy Pelosi’s abusive targeting of Trump supporters and other political opponents,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “Any other police department in America would be investigated and defunded for such abusive secrecy. The Pelosi Congress is in cover-up mode regarding January 6.”
“Judicial Watch is conducting an extensive investigation into the January 6 events in Washington, DC,” Judicial Watch said in a press release.
“Earlier this month, Judicial Watch uncovered documents from Washington, DC’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) related to Air Force veteran and San Diego native Ashli Babbitt. These documents reveal that OCME submitted a request for permission to cremate Babbitt only two days after taking custody of her body and that due to the “high profile nature” of Babbitt’s case, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Francisco Diaz requested that a secure electronic file with limited access be created for Babbitt’s records. Additionally, Babbitt’s fingerprints were emailed to a person supposedly working for the DC government, which resulted in Microsoft “undeliverable” messages written in Chinese characters being returned,” the watchdog said.
“In July, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DOJ for records of communication between the FBI and several financial institutions about the reported transfer of financial transactions made by people in DC, Maryland and Virginia on January 5 and January 6, 2021. The FBI refused to confirm or deny any such records exist. Also in July, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for information relating to the tracking and collecting of Americans’ social media posts through its Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP),” it said.
