The new Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has announced that he will release 40,000 hours of video footage of the storming of the Capitol. “To restore Americans’ confidence in their government, we must create transparency,” he said, justifying the move.
“Truth and transparency are critical,” Mike Johnson wrote on the X Platform (formerly Twitter) on Friday. The release of the material will give millions of Americans, lawyers, public advocacy groups and the media the opportunity to see for themselves what happened that day.
View Mike Johnson’s tweet here.
The material will be gradually published on the website of a committee of the House of Parliament. Care will be taken to conceal the faces of private individuals, Johnson said. With this step, he reportedly fulfills a promise he made to the far right in his group before the election for the top job. They falsely claim again and again that the violent attack was a peaceful demonstration.
Supporters of then US President Donald Trump stormed the Houses of Parliament in Washington on January 6, 2021. Congress met there to formally confirm Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Five people died as a result of the attack. More than 1,200 others were arrested. Trump had previously incited his supporters during a speech and has yet to stand trial. Unsurprisingly, the politician pleaded not guilty (see video above).
Dispute over recordings
There have been disputes about the surveillance recordings in the past. Johnson’s predecessor Kevin McCarthy had given recordings exclusively to the then Fox News talk show host. He showed a few selected photos and commented on them in the spirit of Trump. Talk show host Tucker Carlson is known for spreading conspiracy theories and was fired from Fox News a few months ago. According to the police, the compilation of the video footage was misleading at the time.
Source: Krone
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