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A federal judge has ruled that the trial of a Jan. 6 defendant will proceed after she requested a delay following the release of tens of thousands of hours of surveillance video footage by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
Politico reports that U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who was appointed by former President Obama, has acknowledged that the request made by defendant Sara Carpenter is not baseless. However, the judge also observed that the defense has not provided enough clarification regarding why any further footage would be considered exculpatory. Carpenter, a former NYPD officer, is currently facing two felony charges related to her alleged involvement in the Capitol riot, Fox News noted, citing the Politico report.
The future chief district court judge for Washington D.C. also cautioned against delaying the trials of defendants, including Sara Carpenter, who are facing charges in connection with the January 6th Capitol riot. Boasberg argued further that reviewing Capitol and police surveillance footage from McCarthy’s office could potentially disrupt numerous trials scheduled in the coming months.
Fox News noted that prosecutors have already provided Carpenter with a substantial amount of closed-circuit television footage, capturing her presence inside the Capitol building for a duration of 34 minutes, with only a few seconds unaccounted for. However, it is unclear what footage, if any, McCarthy has released to the prosecutors.
Fox News added:
In 2021, Capitol police already shared some 14,000 hours of footage – including the hours of noon to 8 p.m. on Jan. 6 – to Trum House impeachment managers and two House committees investigating the riot that interrupted Congress certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
In requesting a 60-day delay in the trial, Carpenter’s attorneys argued some of McCarthy’s footage might help fill the “gaps” and provide more context to the defendant’s actions inside the Capitol.
Last month, Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado announced that McCarthy had agreed to release more of the footage to the public.
Gaetz said McCarthy agreed to do so as part of a deal to win his and Boebert’s support, two Republicans in a group of about 20 that held back their support for days, denying him the speaker’s gavel.
“The American people deserve to know the truth about what happened on January 6th. We have demanded to see all the footage. Transparency is coming,” Gaetz said. “Every time from the JFK files, to 9/11, to now January 6th. It’s our own government, our own Department of Justice that seems to stand in the way of transparency.”
He also doubled down on his call to bring in more CSPAN cameras to the House floor.
“If we had cameras on the floor, my suspicion is we would have far better attendance during debates that impact the lives of our fellow Americans,” he said.
Boebert added on Twitter: “Speaker McCarthy says he’ll be releasing ALL the footage from January 6th. Considering all the public has seen are edited clips from a bunch of Democrats with an axe to grind, it sure will be nice to get some unbiased footage.”
A pair of House Republicans are also calling on Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi to testify about security failures that occurred at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The reason there wasn’t a proper security presence on that day goes right to the speaker’s staff and the speaker’s office. As you go back and look at the communications, there’s this pattern that develops where the Sergeant of Arms is meeting with Pelosi’s staff. Many of those meetings, Republican staff wasn’t allowed to be there, but they had this pattern where everything had to run through her office, her staff, before the Sergeant of Arms could make a decision,” Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said when speaking about House Republicans’ report detailing security failures at the Capitol that day.
Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls issued a similar response: “And Nancy Pelosi. You do have questions you need to answer … Nancy, we’ll get you, and we’ll fly you back from Italy once you’re the ambassador,” Nehls said as he joked about prior reports speculating that President Biden was considering offering the U.S. Ambassador to Italy post to Pelosi.
