The event, of course, is the roughly four-hour-long disturbance at the U.S. Capitol on January 6<\/strong>. As mostly nonviolent Americans dared to protest Congress\u2019 certification of a clearly fraudulent presidential election in a place that once was considered \u201cThe People\u2019s House,\u201d lawmakers scurried for cover as reporters and photographers captured part of the ruckus on video and still shots to wield as political ammunition against Donald Trump and his supporters.<\/p>\n But have we seen a full and fair depiction of exactly what happened that day?<\/strong> The answer, as evidenced by an ongoing coverup by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Justice Department, clearly is no<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Almost all the January 6 video seen by the public isn\u2019t from official government sources but by social media users and journalists on the scene. For example, the widely viewed footage of protestors occupying the Senate chamber was recorded<\/a> by a New Yorker<\/i> journalist.<\/p>\n But thousands of hours of real-time footage is in the hands of the Capitol Police\u2014and 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.<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n According to an affidavit<\/a> filed in March by Thomas DiBiase, the Capitol Police department\u2019s general counsel, the building is monitored 24\/7 by an \u201cextensive system of cameras\u201d<\/strong> positioned both inside and outside the building as well as near other congressional offices on the grounds.<\/p>\n 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.)<\/p>\n Capitol Police also produced selective clips for Democratic House impeachment managers to use in the trial against Donald Trump.<\/p>\n But Capitol Police argue that making all the tapes available to defense attorneys\u2006\u2014let alone to the American public\u2014could provoke future violence<\/strong>. \u201cThe 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,\u201d DiBiase wrote March 17. \u201cOur 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<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201chighly sensitive\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cDefense 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,\u201d Judge Amit Mehta wrote in a protective order<\/a> related to the conspiracy case against members of the Oath Keepers. \u201cThe 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.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Sounds legit.<\/p>\n But defense attorneys and the media now are fighting the video blackout. During a detention hearing last month for the two men accused of spraying officer Brian Sicknick\u2014both have been behind bars and denied bail since their arrests in March\u2014defense lawyers objected<\/a> to the government\u2019s use of \u201ccherry-picked\u201d video they couldn\u2019t see in its full context which, if examined, might contain exculpatory evidence.<\/p>\n Under pressure from a group of media outlets, the government finally released what it claims is the incriminating video showing the chemical spray \u201cattack\u201d against Sicknick. (It didn\u2019t.)<\/strong> The choppy video<\/a> included recordings from several surveillance cameras, a few D.C. police officers, and a bystander.<\/p>\n Journalists continue to be frustrated by the Justice Department\u2019s suppression tactics. In a plea last week to Beryl Howell, chief judge of the D.C. District Court handling all the January 6 cases, 14 news organizations asked for better access to video evidence presented in court. (Virtual court proceedings further help prosecutors keep the clips under wraps.)<\/p>\n \u201c[T]he press and public have not been able to access these videos on the Court\u2019s electronic dockets<\/strong>,\u201d lawyers representing CNN, ABC News, the Wall Street Journal<\/i> and others wrote<\/a> in a May 3 letter. \u201cDelayed access to these historic records shuts the public out of an important part of the administration of justice.\u201d The government, the lawyers told Howell, refuses to give a \u201csubstantive answer\u201d as to why the video evidence isn\u2019t publicly available and listed several cases where surveillance footage was played in court but not otherwise accessible.<\/p>\n The secret video archive of January 6 isn\u2019t the only recording under scrutiny<\/strong>. It\u2019s also unclear whether Capitol Police kept the footage from January 5. DiBiase said surveillance video is routinely deleted after 30 days; only a \u201cvery limited\u201d number of clips from January 5 were given to the U.S. Attorney in D.C., the office handling the massive investigation.<\/p>\n It would be very convenient for the Capitol Police\u2014no objective party in this saga since it launched the lie about Sicknick\u2019s death\u2014to purge footage from January 5 so defense attorneys and the public cannot see what sort of activity took place the day before the \u201cinsurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n So what, exactly, is the government trying to hide?<\/strong> How can activity inside and outside a public building be considered \u201chighly sensitive?\u201d In response to a Freedom of Information Act filing by Judicial Watch, Capitol Police told<\/a> the group the recordings are not \u201cpublic records.\u201d But of course they are. A security system controlled by a federal agency in a public building paid for by taxpayers to conduct the public business of public officials is most certainly a public record.<\/strong><\/p>\n Even if legal loopholes allow for such an exemption, the greater public interest should supersede any technicalities. Major parts of the original narrative already have fallen apart, including the story that officer Sicknick was murdered by Trump supporters and the myth it was an \u201carmed insurrection\u201d; the full account of what prompted the killing of Ashli Babbitt by an unidentified Capitol cop is still unknown.<\/p>\n Further, the Biden regime is weaponizing January 6 to hunt down and destroy the lives of people\u2014many of whom committed no violent crimes\u2014anywhere near the building that day. The Justice Department is promising to build sedition cases; Biden\u2019s intelligence chiefs are operating outside their authorization in their effort to portray regular Americans as domestic terrorists.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cinsurrectionists.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s only one reason why the Justice Department wants to keep the footage under seal:<\/strong> it contradicts most if not all of the claims advanced by Democrats and the media over the past four months<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t know exactly what happened on January 6\u2014and it\u2019s clear the government will use any means necessary to keep it that way.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/GettyImages-1230455373.jpg?itok=ehlqKadr\")
<\/picture><\/a><\/p>\nFighting Back Against the Blackout<\/b><\/h3>\n