Donald Trump praises House Speaker Johnson for releasing Jan 6 tapes

"Congratulations to Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson for having the Courage and Fortitude to release all of the J6 Tapes, which will explicitly reveal what happened on January 6th!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump has been under significant political persecution at the hands of a weaponized Department of Justice since the riot occurred in 2021 following his rally called, "Stop the Steal." Immediately following the incident, the 45th President was famously banned from nearly all social media platforms. Biden's DOJ has been out to prosecute Trump ever since, but the popular Republican president has maintained his innocence and denies any involvement or prior knowledge of the attack.

In August, Trump was indicted on Jan. 6 conspiracy charges by Biden-appointed special counsel Jack Smith. He has since been placed under a gag order by District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, which prevents him from publicly speaking on critical matters in relation to Jan. 6.

Between the riot being broadcasted on mainstream media networks nearly all hours of the day for years, to former Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi creating a "sham" Jan. 6 select committee, and to Trump's voice being stripped from social media platforms, the former President hopes the 44,000 hours of released footage reveals the true story to the American people.

Newly-elected House Speaker Johnson (R-LA) made good on his promise to release the tapes on Friday, something that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to follow through on which led to his historic ousting in September.

"Today, I am keeping my promise to the American people and making all the January 6th tapes available to ALL Americans," Speaker Johnson wrote on X.

Johnson followed up the post with a link to 44,000 hours of footage captured on Jan. 6. from the U.S. Capitol.

"To restore America's trust and faith in their Government we must have transparency. This is another step towards keeping the promises I made when I was elected to be your Speaker," Johnson said.

Johnson received massive praise from Republican politicians and voters who have been highly anticipating the release of the tapes for years.

The Speaker of the House said he released the tapes to instill public trust and that the American people deserve to see the footage.

"When I ran for Speaker, I promised to make accessible to the American people the 44,000 hours of video from Capitol Hill security taken on January 6, 2021. Truth and transparency are critical. Today, we will begin immediately posting video on a public website and move as quickly as possible to add to the website nearly all of the footage, more than 40,000 hours," Johnson said.

"In the meantime, a public viewing room will ensure that every citizen can view every minute of the videos uncensored. This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials," he continued.

"I commend Chairman Loudermilk and his team for their diligent work to ensure the thousands of hours of videos are promptly processed to be uploaded to the committee's public website," the Speaker added. "Processing will involve blurring the faces of private citizens on the yet unreleased tapes to avoid any persons from being targeted for retaliation of any kind and segregating an estimated 5% of the videos that may involve sensitive security information related to the building architecture."

Those believed to be involved in the Capitol riot have been hunted by the FBI, placed into solitary confinement without trial dates, and have been given more than 20-year prison sentences. Some of the Jan. 6 defendants, who have been dubbed "political prisoners," committed suicide over the incident.

Not only does Trump want justice for how he and his voters have been treated, but the American people who have been painted as domestic terrorists since Jan. 6 also hope the tapes reveal the true story of that historic day.