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GOP didn’t tell Capitol Police it was giving Tucker Carlson Jan. 6 videos, lawyer says

House Republicans disregarded requests by U.S. Capitol Police to examine and approve every Jan. 6 video clip they intended to make public, the agency’s general counsel said late last week in a court filing involving a Kansas man’s case.

Thomas DiBiase said in a sworn affidavit that he learned through a media report on Feb. 20 that staff from Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show had been granted access to the footage.

“That access was not previewed with the Capitol Police nor was the Capitol Police informed before that access was granted,” DiBiase said. “I was informed that personnel from the Tucker Carlson Show were allowed to view whatever footage they wanted while supervised by staff from CHA (the Republican-led Committee on House Administration) but that no footage had been physically turned over to the show.”

DiBiase’s response, first reported by Politico, came in a six-page declaration filed Friday in the case of William Pope of Topeka, who is charged with multiple felonies in connection with the Capitol riot. On March 3, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras delayed ruling on a request by Pope — who is representing himself — to release video in his case that he says shows undercover Metropolitan Police officers inciting protesters on Jan. 6.

Contreras said that before ruling on Pope’s request he wanted to know more about news reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy planned to make more than 40,000 hours of Capitol security footage available to the broader public and to lawyers of defendants charged in connection with the insurrection.

The judge said he wanted a sworn declaration from the Capitol Police within two weeks “as to exactly what all those things mean and whether there’s been any restrictions whatsoever as to what the press can do with those CCTV videos once they receive them.”

The debate over the release of Capitol security video intensified last month when McCarthy faced criticism for granting Carlson exclusive access to view the footage. McCarthy then said he would make access to the footage available to the broader public and to lawyers of defendants charged in the insurrection. Carlson showed dozens of clips on his programs earlier this month, downplaying the violence and portraying protesters as mostly peaceful.

In his declaration, DiBiase said that on Feb. 27, the Committee on House Administration’s staff director requested a list of the Capitol Police cameras that had been on their “sensitive list” and whose footage was excluded from being released. He provided the list on March 1. The list, he said, was of cameras that Capitol Police deemed to contain sensitive information, such as evacuation routes or sensitive infrastructure or offices.

DiBiase said he emphasized to the committee’s staff director numerous times that it was the Capitol Police’s desire to review every footage clip if it was going to be made public. He said he told the staff director that this was the same procedure followed by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and by prosecutors in all of the Capitol riot criminal cases — “that we were shown and had to approve of every clip before it was made public.”

“This was followed in all cases by both the Select Committee and the prosecutors,” he said.

But of the many clips aired during Carlson’s shows on March 6 and 7, DiBiase said, “I was shown only one clip before it aired, and that clip was from the Sensitive List.”

He said since that clip was similar to one used in former President Trump’s second impeachment trial and was publicly available, he approved its use. However, DiBiase said, “The other approximately 40 clips, which were not from the Sensitive List, were never shown to me nor anyone else from the Capitol Police.”

In a footnote to his declaration, though, DiBiase said that none of the approximately 15 clips shown during Trump’s second impeachment trial — including some from the “sensitive list” — were shown to Capitol Police beforehand.

DiBiase, a former assistant U.S. attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, said his duties include authorizing the release of camera footage from the Capitol Police’s extensive closed circuit video system. The system, he said, “provides the backbone of the security for the U.S. Capitol Grounds” and is monitored by officers around the clock.

Access to the CCV system is strictly limited, DiBiase said, and can only be gained from specific work stations and monitors in a handful of locations.

Before any footage can be released, DiBiase said, a form must be filled out and signed by several officials, including the assistant chief of police for operations. DiBiase said his office “has consistently taken a restrictive view of releasing camera footage in cases other than serious crimes or national security.”

The main reason for the restrictions, he said, is to protect the security of the Capitol grounds and the safety of employees or visitors.

“Allowing less restricted access to the CCV system could present a dire safety risk to the Capitol and its inhabitants; even a knowledge of, for example, the location of each CCV camera might enable a bad actor to exploit vulnerabilities in the system,” DiBiase said.

He said that on Feb. 8, he got a verbal request from the majority staff director for the Committee on House Administration. The committee is one of four that has oversight over the Capitol Police. The staff director, he said, asked that the committee be provided the same access to the Capitol Police footage that was given to the Democratic-led Jan. 6 Select Committee.

The chairman of the Committee on House Administration followed up with a letter on Feb. 9 making the same request, DiBiase said.

He said the Select Committee had access to all Capitol Police footage from all exterior cameras and all interior Capitol and Capitol Visitor’s Center cameras from noon to 8 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, a total of 12,671 hours. The Capitol Police later provided the Select Committee with an additional 28,386 hours of video from the Capitol and other buildings on Jan. 3, 4, 5 and 6, DiBiase said.

Within days of the request from the Committee on House Administration, DiBiase said, Capitol Police installed three terminals in a House office building and provided four hard drives that he had received from the Select Committee when it had finished its investigation. The Capitol Police provided the password to sign into the system to one staff member of the Committee on House Administration, he said.

“At no time was I nor anyone else from the Capitol Police informed that anyone other than personnel from CHA would be reviewing the camera footage,” DiBiase said.

DiBiase said he’d seen media reports that the footage also may be shown to defendants in Capitol riot cases.

“I have been told by the Staff Director of CHA that, as of last week, no footage has been shown to any defendant or defense counsel but that defense counsel have reached out to CHA seeking to review the footage,” he said.