The reported disappearance of videotapes of witness interviews of depositions conducted by the now-disbanded Jan. 6 congressional committee, which was led by the Democrats, is raising serious issues about the integrity of that J6 committee.
There are now grave doubts about that J6 committee’s activities as an “investigative” body; the signs are increasingly pointing to the conclusion that its role was more like that of a “cover-up” body.
The House Administration Oversight subcommittee, led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), made the astonishing revelation on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show on Thursday night.
“All of the videotapes of all depositions are gone,” he confirmed.
Since the videotapes were used as evidence during congressional hearings by the now-defunct J6 committee and its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MI), they were supposed to have retained all of the videos, according to the Congressman.
“We found out about this early in the investigation when I received a call from someone who was looking for some information off one of the videotapes, and we started searching, and we had none,” Loudermilk indicated. “I wrote a letter to Bennie Thompson asking for them. And he confirmed that they did not preserve those types. He didn’t feel that they had to.”
“But according to House rules, you have to preserve any data and information and documents that are used in an official proceeding, which they did. They actually aired portions of these tapes on their televised hearings, which means they had to keep those. But yet he chose not to,” Loudermilk added. “I believe they exist somewhere. We’ve just got to find where all these videos are.”
But others are not so sure. William Pope, a J6 defendant who goes on X by @FreeStateWill, made a salient point.
If the January 6 Coverup Committee destroyed their primary source recordings to hide evidence, none of their transcripts or work product can be trusted! It’s a complete sham! Their foundational evidence is missing.
— ?? (@FreeStateWill) December 1, 2023
“If the January 6 Coverup Committee destroyed their primary source recordings to hide evidence, none of their transcripts or work product can be trusted! It’s a complete sham! Their foundational evidence is missing,” Pope said.
As John Solomon reported in the aftermath of his interview with Loudermilk, the story gets worse for the now-defunct J6 committee.
The revelation also could have implications for criminal trials being conducted in state court in Georgia and federal court in Washington where former President Donald Trump and allies are charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021 events. Trump’s legal team recently was turned down by a judge when he requested certain evidence from the Jan. 6 committee.
The congressman added in the interview that House Republicans have no records of who the witnesses were, what they said, or why it is being used in the federal prosecution against Trump.
But in addition to the “vanished” videotapes, there is another problem: The Democrat-led House committee sent certain evidence such as transcripts to the Biden White House and Homeland Security Department. Loudermilk’s GOP-led subcommittee says the documents are nearly fully redacted so their contents can’t be read.
As Loudermilk put it, these documents “belong to the House. They should have never been sent. And second of all, do not send them back to me this heavily redacted. Those are our documents,” the chairman said.
“But my question is, why was it okay for a Democrat-run House of Representatives to have unredacted documents but not when there’s a Republican committee that’s looking into this. What is it that the committee and or the White House is trying to hide?”
Based on what has been revealed by the J6 surveillance tapes and the court documents so far, the inescapable conclusion is quite a lot.
