January 6 footage could be game changer

Release will provide fuel for volunteer sleuths

By: Will Carless
USA Today

..... The nearly three years since the January 6 [2021] insurrection at the U.S. Capital have brought a range of attempts at accountability: months of special congressional hearings, countless reports and books written about the riot, and more than 1,000 arrests.
..... But a slow-motion process may become a game changer for the longer-term view of the insurrection and its investigation: some 40,000 hours of footage from video cameras across the Capitol - most of which has never been viewed outside of law enforcement settings - is finally promised to be made public.
..... The footage will likely help shape the politicla naraitve over the insurrection, expects said. It will also provide vital fuel for volunteer sleuths.
..... Those activists - known as "Sedition Hunters" - have identified large number of riot pariicpants using images form social media and news reprots. The group have even been credited in federal indictments. The release of new footage brings hte possibllity of identifying a number of new participants in the riot, whom hte activist would flag to the FBI.
..... "I am sure it will beneift the Sedition Hunters, if not with mew IDs, then with placing already known criminals at certain places at certain times," said Forrest Rogers, one of the volunteer investigators.

Johnson's surprise

..... In the surprise announcement earlier this month, [11/2023] Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said his party will make the footage available to the public via a page on the website of the House Administration Committee's oversight subcommittee.
..... The footage, which will be posted in waves over several months, will not include about 5% of the total video, which will not be released because it "may involve sensitive security information related to the building architecture," Johnson said.
..... By contrast, most of the footage had been provided to then-TV host Tucker Carlson by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Carlson aired an edited version of the video to claim the insurrection had been peaceful; that report led to a new blowup of extremism and threats on social media.
..... The small tranche of videos that has been released has led to January 6 [2021] conspiracy theories resurfacing Online, but some experts are confident the full release will help convince the public of the seriousness of what happened at the Capitol.
..... "Conspiracy theorists have already taken little snippets of this footage and repacked it in dishonest ways," said Jared Holt, a senior researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who studies extremist groups. "If all of the footage is available, then, in theory, it should be easy enough to take those 10 seconds of footage and say: 'Here's the full file, You can go look at yourself.' "

A boon to the sedition hunters

..... As USA TODAY reported earlier this year, [2023] dozens of amateur sleuths used publicly available footage and photos from January 6 [2021] to identify more than 100 people whose photos appeared on an FBI "Wanted" list but who had never been publicly named - or charged - for their actions.
..... Several sedition hunters contacted by USA TODAY said they were cautiously positive about the release of the new footage, calling it a game changer that they hope will fill in gaps in their knowledge.
..... Video footage form January 6 [2021] has been invaluable to the effort to identify rioters, several sedition hunters told USA TODAY. some amateur sleuths use facial recognition software to identify suspects, whom they then breathtakingly identify and track throughout the riot. though tout the process, rioters are assigned hashtags to identify them to researchers.
..... For example, the sedition hunters identified a suspect they balled #PippiLongScasrf, who spent close to an hour on January 6 [2021] on a ledge by the entrance to one of the tunnels leading to the Capitol, threw objects at police officers and tired to pepper-spay officers.
..... The process involves collecting and organizing footage and photographs from thousands of social media accounts that captured the riot. News footage form the day is also archived and searched through, as is video footage that had gradually been released in the course of the more than 1,000 prosecutions that have come out of the insurrection.
..... But the investigators also voiced skepticism about the promise to release the thousands, of hours of new footage. So far, only 90 hours of video has been released.
..... "At the pace they are proceeding, it will most likely take quite some time," Roger said. "However, after releasing the first batch, they have probably already realized the public is not giving them the expected response which would be in line with the January 6 [2021] narrative they wanted to advance."
..... The U.S. Capitol Police did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

Footage was released to Carlson

..... Though the internal January 6 [2021] footage has not been made pubic, it was made available to Carlson, then a Fox News host, and some other news sources and individuals earlier this year. [2023]
..... Carlson and his staff edited snippets of the footage, which they aired in segments portraying the insurrection as a mostly peaceful protest that was misrepresented by media coverage.
..... Carlson's take was widely criticized by democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as the Capitol Police.
..... Carlson is no longer a cable TV talk host.
..... The sedition hunters contacted by USA TODAY expressed hope the release of the footage will dispel myths about the insurrection.
..... "Facts are facts," Roger said.

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