House panel chairman says J6 videotapes of witness interviews missing

[Vambram]

Vanished! House panel chairman says J6 videotapes of witness interviews missing

Rep. Barry Loudermilk says some J6 documents missing too, and came back from Biden White House heavily redacted.

justthenews.com

Rep. Barry Loudermilk says some J6 documents missing too, and came back from Biden White House heavily redacted.
Videotapes of witness interviews that the Democrat-led Jan. 6 congressional committee conducted have vanished, raising concerns for the chairman of the successor House panel that is now examining security failures related to the Capitol riot as well as possible implications for upcoming criminal trials.

“All of the videotapes of all depositions are gone,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chairman of the House Administration oversight subcommittee, told the "Just the News, No Noise" television show Thursday night.

Loudermilk said he believes under the House rules the videotapes qualified as congressional evidence because some clips were aired at hearings, and all the tapes should have been preserved by the now-defunct J6 committee and its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

Thompson did not return a request for comment from Just the News left with his office.

“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 explained. “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 (J6 Democrats) actually aired portions of these tapes on their televised hearings, which means they had to keep those. But yet he chose not to, I believe they exist somewhere. We've just got to find where all these videos are.”

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.

Loudermilk also revealed another tantalizing twist in the J6 committee evidence: the Democrat-led House committee sent certain evidence such as transcripts to the Biden White House and Homeland Security Department and now the transcripts have been returned to Loudermilk’s GOP-led subcommittee nearly fully redacted so their contents can’t be read.

House Republicans have no records of who the witnesses were, what they said, or why it is being used by the federal prosecutor in their case against Trump, Loudermilk said.

The 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?”

 

[That Guy 11200]

Videotapes? As in VHS?

 

[AlexB23]

Videotapes? As in VHS?

Videotapes is a colloquial term for recorded video, even if it is digital. We have so much footage of January 6th on YT and other websites that should have been evidence to lock Trump up a year ago. VHS was officially discontinued back in the mid-2000s decade, though my class did watch an old 1990s science documentary on VHS in middle school back in 2012.

 

[JustOneWay]

It is bad enough that the republicans still think this is a partisan witch hunt, but now they are trying to stir up even more controversy by blaming the White House?

Nobody in Congress ever thought to make backups? Right....

This sounds fishy....like just one more 'expedition' by republicans for more political theater.

 

[essentialsaltes]

This is a rerun from months ago. It won't get any better legs this time, either, I expect.

IIRC, there's quibbling over the difference between an independently certified transcript and the raw video footage itself.

 

[The Barbarian]

This is a rerun from months ago. It won't get any better legs this time, either, I expect.

IIRC, there's quibbling over the difference between an independently certified transcript and the raw video footage itself.

I guess Barry is doing what he can with what he has...

 

[USincognito]

Videotapes is a colloquial term for recorded video, even if it is digital. We have so much footage of January 6th on YT and other websites that should have been evidence to lock Trump up a year ago. VHS was officially discontinued back in the mid-2000s decade, though my class did watch an old 1990s science documentary on VHS in middle school back in 2012.

This is the most 90s thing in existence.

 

[AlexB23]

This is the most 90s thing in existence.View attachment 340506

Wow, I was a little young for Windows 95, but did have a Windows 98 computer to play Jumpstart games as a little kid back in 2005 or so.

 

[USincognito]

Wow, I was a little young for Windows 95, but did have a Windows 98 computer to play Jumpstart games as a little kid back in 2005 or so.

I purchased an HP in 2000 that had the widely disparaged Windows ME. It worked fine for 10 years and still boots up after 23 years.

 

[The Barbarian]

My first computer was a Radio Shack Trash-80, with 4K memory and I/O via cassette tape. One learns to write really tight programs when all one has is 4K memory.

 

[AlexB23]

I purchased an HP in 2000 that had the widely disparaged Windows ME. It worked fine for 10 years and still boots up after 23 years.

That is impressive. A computer that still boots up after nearly a quarter of a century. If only Apple and Dell could pull that off with modern PCs.

 

[The Barbarian]

That is impressive. A computer that still boots up after nearly a quarter of a century. If only Apple and Dell could pull that off with modern PCs.

The issue is that a computer becomes obsolete after a period of time. Making them more durable than that, is really a waste of resources. It's why Xerox failed at making PCs. I inherited a Xerox 820 from my employer at the time. Besides running CP/M, it was built like a copier. The twin 12 inch floppy drives weighed a ton. But nothing ever failed on it.

 

[AlexB23]

The issue is that a computer becomes obsolete after a period of time. Making them more durable than that, is really a waste of resources. It's why Xerox failed at making PCs. I inherited a Xerox 820 from my employer at the time. Besides running CP/M, it was built like a copier. The twin 12 inch floppy drives weighed a ton. But nothing ever failed on it.

Yeah, but some computers break down after a few years, long before the software becomes obsolete. Just go to an average Reddit thread about Dell, and you will find countless testimonies on laptops breaking after 18 months.

Anyways, we should slowly bring this thread back to the main topic the OP said, which is about how politicians are trying to delay the trials by saying they "lost the evidence", even though there are hundreds of hours of videos re-uploaded to the internet showing brainwashed people clearly breaking into the Capitol, which is criminal trespassing and much worse.

 

[The Barbarian]

Anyways, we should slowly bring this thread back to the main topic the OP said, which is about how politicians are trying to delay the trials by saying they "lost the evidence", even though there are hundreds of hours of videos re-uploaded to the internet showing brainwashed people clearly breaking into the Capitol, which is criminal trespassing and much worse.

But...but... but several republican congressmen and Donald Trump said they were peaceful tourists...

 

[AlexB23]

But...but... but several republican congressmen and Donald Trump said they were peaceful tourists...

Yeah. There is clearly a bias. Now, if both parties said the protest was peaceful, or the Capitol rioters were just tourists, then I would agree. But the videos of January 2021 show aggression and violence. And some Republicans* are fed up with the lies that Trump spews.

*Chris Christie takes a shot at Trump: Chris Christie takes shots at Trump, Biden

 

[Brihaha]

My theory is that new Speaker guy saw some of his family on video and...he lost them somehow lol.

It's hilarious how republicans now want access to the evidence discovered in the major investigation in which they themselves refused to contribute. How long will Americans continue voting for this level of incompetence?

 

[The Barbarian]

But the videos of January 2021 show aggression and violence.

Smashing windows, looting offices, and beating fallen police officers with flagpoles is normal peaceful tourist behavior, I suppose...

 

[AlexB23]

Smashing windows, looting offices, and beating fallen police officers with flagpoles is normal peaceful tourist behavior, I suppose...

That is what the Trump supporters want us to believe, that no violence was committed, but we know better. The atrocities were real. People died on January 6th. One of the officers discussed about how January 2021 has scarred him for life.

Mental health of Capitol officers (recommended for ages 16+ due to topics of PTSD): ‘January 6 Is Still Ongoing,’ Says Officer Harry Dunn