(Washington) More than 40,000 hours of surveillance video captured during the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol will be made public, the new Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives announced Friday.
Thousands of hours of surveillance video have already been examined by a congressional commission that investigated the attack on the institution by supporters of ex-President Donald Trump contesting Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in 2020.
“Today, I am keeping my promise to the American people and making all recordings from January 6 available to ALL Americans,” Louisiana Republican Representative Mike Johnson said on X.
“Truth and transparency are essential,” he added.
Supporting Donald Trump for reconquering the White House in 2024, Mike Johnson specified that the videos from the Capitol will be posted online on a public website.
“This decision will allow millions of Americans, defendants, public interest organizations and the media to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely on interpretation of a small group” of political figures, underlined Mr. Johnson.
A House select committee had recommended that Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, be charged with insurrection and other offenses related to the Capitol riot.
Donald Trump will be tried in Washington in March on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election. More than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack.
In the images soon to be made public, faces will be blurred to avoid possible “retaliations,” said Mike Johnson.