J6 Committee deleted over 100 encrypted files before House GOP took majority: report

It has been revealed that the former J6 House Select Committee deleted over 100 encrypted files before the GOP lawmakers took the majority in the House.

In a report from Fox Digital, sources who spoke to the outlet said that an investigation led by House Administration Committee's Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk has revealed that the J6 committee deleted the files after being required to turn them over to a new panel of GOP lawmakers after the House majority went to the Republican party.  

Sources who spoke to the outlet said that four terabytes of data were expected in the handoff, but the new panel only got about half of the files that were expected. They had been deleted on Jan. 1, 2023, just days before the House Select Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), was required to hand them off to new leadership.  

A data intelligence team has determined that all 117 files were deleted and encrypted prior to the switch. The team has been able to uncover all the 117 files that were deleted int the process. Loudermilk has been demanding answers and passwords for the data.  

A letter from Loudermilk to Thompson regarding the matter was obtained by the outlet, reading: "As you acknowledged in your July 7, 2023 letter, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Select Committee) did not archive all Committee records as required by House Rules." 

"You wrote that you sent specific transcribed interviews and depositions to the White House and Department of Homeland Security but did not archive them with the Clerk of the House," Loudermilk continued in the letter.  

The letter details that Thompson had "claimed that [he] turned over 4-terabytes of digital files, but the hard drives archived by the Select Committee with the Clerk of the House contain less than 3-terabytes of data." 

Loudermilk explained the forensics team had been able to recover the encrypted files and "found that most of the recovered files are password-protected, preventing [the team] from determining what they contain." 

He demanded Thomspon to give him a "a list of passwords for all password-protected files created by the Select Committee" as they could then access the "files and ensure they are properly archived." 

Loudermilk told the outlet, "It’s obvious that Pelosi’s Select Committee went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation. It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules."