The U.S. Department of Justice has withheld thousands of hours of video recorded at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, from January 6 criminal defendants, and U.S. Capitol Police might have held back more than 1,300 hours of security video from a congressional oversight committee, a new federal court filing alleges.
Defendant William Pope contends in an update to a previous court filing that he and others charged with crimes at the Capitol that day need access to what should be more than 152,000 hours of video. That is if Capitol Police preserved it all.
“Americans have historically been skeptical of opaque government processes, and that skepticism has never been more intense than it is now regarding January 6,” Pope wrote in a 17-page court filing before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras.
“Concealment of the Capitol CCTV is fueling public speculation that there is more to January 6 than is being reported.”
Pope, who is representing himself, is seeking full access to the U.S. Department of Justice evidence database so he can use it in his defense.
Pope dissected a declaration from Capitol Police general counsel Thomas DiBiase introduced by federal prosecutors in his case. He also compared it to an earlier DiBiase declaration. In his new filing, Pope calls these documents the “dueling dubious DiBiase declarations.”
“Despite hundreds of January 6 CCTV clips now being public, Mr. DiBiase still believes other footage from those same cameras must be hidden from the American people,” Pope wrote.
“He believes hiding footage is a bigger national security priority than maintaining the public’s trust. And in an effort to keep this footage hidden from the American people, he has issued a second declaration that on many points contradicts his first.”
The Epoch Times asked DiBiase for comment on Pope’s court filing and his contentions, but has yet to receive a response.
Based on DiBiase’s 2023 document, Pope contended that Capitol Police might have withheld more than 1,300 hours of security video from the now-defunct January 6 Select Committee, and the 2023 Committee on House Administration.
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