The more than 20,000 hours of Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol security video made public by a GOP-controlled House committee since November 2023 have started to fill in details long hidden by the now-defunct Jan. 6 Select Committee.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) ordered security video be uploaded to publicly accessible servers beginning last November. Eventually, staff from the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight established a channel on the video platform Rumble to store the footage.
Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight—Republican Majority
“Today’s release marks the halfway point of the estimated 40,000 hours we intend to publish,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, said on April 15.
“Not only are we releasing all video footage, but we will continue to release all findings, videos, and documents until everything is available for the public to see the full picture of the events surrounding that day,” Mr. Loudermilk said in a statement.
Ashli Babbitt
The fatal shooting of 35-year-old Ms. Babbitt received no attention from the Jan. 6 committee.
While the shooting itself was captured on video only by bystanders in the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby, security video showed efforts by FBI medics, Capitol Police tactical officers, and paramedics to save Ms. Babbitt’s life.
As rioting raged in the Speaker’s Lobby hallway just after 2:40 p.m., it seemed virtually no one noticed Lt. Michael Byrd slip out from his hidden position with his Glock pistol aimed at the dozens of people just feet to his right.
Ms. Babbitt spent her few minutes in the hallway trying to keep the crowd from spiraling further into mob behavior. The former Air Force military police officer shouted at three Capitol Police officers to “call [expletive] help” before she used a left hook to sideline rioter Zachary Alam for smashing several windows.
Mr. Byrd lunged forward and fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt as she attempted to climb through a broken-out side panel of the Speaker’s Lobby entrance. The shooting, which was never announced as an officer-involved incident on the Capitol Police radio, sent would-be rescuers toward the Capitol’s South Door.
The first video indication of a response to calls for help was at the South Door of the Capitol just before 2:50 p.m. A Capitol Police officer led a five-man FBI SWAT team into the front of the Hall of Columns.
