When a conservative legal group filed a public records request for local police footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, incursion into the United States Capitol, they were told that the request would cost almost $1.6 million.
Judicial Watch said on Tuesday that the group filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in June 2024 after the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department denied its first public records request in August 2021.
The organization said, it had asked for all audio and video recordings “captured on body-worn cameras from MPD officers during their response to protest activities in and around the Capitol Building.”
But the agency will not release the records until Judicial Watch forks over $1,570,500.
It’s typical for a nonprofit to be told that releasing public documents would cost a few hundred, or even a few thousand, dollars to be paid to some local, state, or federal entity.
But the massive price tag comes even after President Donald Trump pardoned those prosecuted for violations on that fateful day.
The Metropolitan Police Department has records “supposedly containing over one thousand hours of footage.”
“There never has been a legitimate reason to withhold the Jan. 6 police bodycam videos,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
“If they wanted the videos out for political reasons, they’d be public, but instead the D.C. government wants more than $1.5 million in order for the public to view its Jan. 6 videos.”
Are officials overcharging for this FOIA request?
Yes: 100% (3 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
This legal effort from Judicial Watch pertaining to Jan. 6 is just one of many such efforts to expose the truth about that day and to address the fallout.
Judicial Watch filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit over the demise of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer during the incursion.
The trial date is currently set for July 20, 2026.
Judicial Watch has also sued the Department of Justice for “all FBI files on Ashli Babbitt.”
It also sued the CIA “for all records related to any shots fired” inside the Capitol building that day, as well as “records of requests for CIA support including bomb technicians and bomb-detecting dogs placed on standby or used in response to the massive protests in and around Washington, D.C.”
This moment of our national life is one of correcting the wrongs done over the past four years, especially toward conservatives and other Trump supporters.
At the very least, one would think that if the events of Jan. 6 were so terrible, the Metropolitan Police Department would have no problem releasing the records and proving that to the public.
But they are still dragging their feet more than four years after the incursion, and after justice has been dealt — in many cases far too harshly — toward offenders.
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