On Wednesday, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said three news media outlets received footage from the U.S. Capitol riot that took place on January 6, 2021, in an effort to bring more transparency about what happened that day to the American people.
According to Greene, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released “unfettered access” of the Capitol security footage to investigative journalist and Just the News founder John Solomon, senior writer for American Greatness Julie Kelly, and an unidentified third news outlet.
“This is the transparency the American people deserve and I look forward to their reporting!” Greene tweeted.
I’m excited to share the good news that just as I promised the J6 tapes are being released!@SpeakerMcCarthy has given @jsolomonReports, @Julie_kelly2, and a third outlet unfettered access to the J6 tapes, and their reporting on it starts tomorrow.
This is the transparency the…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 31, 2023
McCarthy first announced he would unleash more than 40,000 hours of security footage from the Capitol riot to networks earlier this year to counter the “politicization” he believes had been fostered by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the January 6th Committee.
“We will slowly roll out to every individual news agency,” McCarthy told Fox News in March. “They can come see the tapes as well. Let everyone see them to bring their own judgment.”
McCarthy first gave the exclusive surveillance footage to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who reported several tapes showing two Capitol police officers escorting Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman,” throughout the building.
Prosecutors charged Chansley with multiple crimes, but he ultimately pleaded guilty to one felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, and in November 2021 he was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Authorities have since released Chansley from prison and relocated him to a reentry management facility in Phoenix, where he was held until May 25.
Carlson also released footage of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick that he claims was taken “after he was supposedly murdered by the mob outside,” raising questions about other now-retracted claims from outlets, including an initial report from The New York Times that claimed rioters killed Sicknick after striking him in the head with a fire extinguisher.
The newspaper later retracted the report after an autopsy found that he died from a stroke the following day.
Capitol Police officials said the video Carlson’s show aired was not put in proper context and that the police seen near Chansley were trying to de-escalate what would become a dangerous situation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called from the Senate floor for Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch to pull Carlson off the air, and reporters from several sites hounded McCarthy for giving Carlson’s team access to the video.
More than two years after the riot, Americans have called on lawmakers to release the footage to the public, expressing concerns over how media outlets curate the timeline of events.
Kelly, who has been covering the January 6 investigation since the riot occurred, denounced the idea of a public release as “counterproductive.”
“I do not see how this is possible,” she tweeted. “The system is overwhelming — it’s not something you can just put on the internet. And yes, you need curators who know the timeline of events, locations, etc to give clips context.”
“Making all of it public isn’t just impossible right now but counterproductive in terms of impact,” she added. “Trust us.”
According to Greene, reporting from the latest round of journalists with access to the Capitol riot footage begins on June 1.
