Judicial Watch sues DC cops for access to J6 body cam footage

On Monday, Judicial Watch announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Washington, DC to gain access to the footage from bodycams worn by Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone and his law enforcement colleagues on January 6. The move comes nearly three years after the non-profit originally put in a FOIA request for the material, but was told it could not be provided as it was part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Judicial Watch appealed that ruling, but the MPD did not engage.

In July 2021, Fanone testified in Congress that he had been attacked, and that his bodycam footage showed exactly what happened. As the officer retired and went on to write a book and make numerous appearances on cable news related to his experience on January 6, that footage has remained blocked from public view.

"The American people deserve the full picture from the incident at the Capitol on January 6, 2021," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. "What are they hiding? The DC Metropolitan Police Department should be transparent and release these secret January 6 videos."
 

"None of the rules for the disclosure, transparency, prosecution investigation have been followed," he further lamented in an interview with Just The News, No Noise. "It's been thoroughly politicized, and now we're in court fight over this basic information. This body cam footage is certainly going to be of the in the public interest to get out sooner rather than later. Especially since they want the entire election to hinge on what happened on that day."

Fanone himself expressed a desire for the footage to go public. "My body camera captured the violence of the crowd directed toward me during those very frightening moments," he told the House Select Committee in 2021. "It's an important part of the record for this Committee's investigation and for the country's understanding of how I was assaulted and nearly killed as the mob attacked the Capitol that day, and I hope that everyone will be able to watch it."