Nine legacy media outlets filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys’ administrative office, demanding access to exclusive surveillance footage of the riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released approximately 44,000 hours of security footage to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who produced segments showcasing an opposing narrative from legacy media outlets and the now-dissolved House Select Committee on the January 6 attack.
The media organizations, which include Advance Publications, The Associated Press, CNN, CBS, The E.W. Scripps Company, Gannett, Politico, Pro Publica, and The New York Times, are pressing McCarthy’s office for quick access to the videos through Freedom of Information Act requests.
“Plaintiffs have continued to press the Speaker’s Office for access to the videos as quickly as possible and on equal terms with other media requestors, only to be told that the Speaker’s Office will not even provide a timeline for when such access might begin,” the complaint states.
In a letter to congressional leadership last month reported by CBS, attorney Charles Tobin said the media outlets are concerned that an “ideologically-based narrative” would take shape without full public access to the footage.
“Without full public access to the complete historical record, there is concern that an ideologically-based narrative of an already polarizing event will take hold in the public consciousness, with destabilizing risks to the legitimacy of Congress, the Capitol Police, and the various federal investigations and prosecutions of January 6 crimes,” wrote attorney Charles Tobin.
Carlson and his team received exclusive access to the footage as part of a deal made with McCarthy, who said he opted for the disclosure for the sake of transparency and to counter the “politicization” he said had been fostered by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the January 6 Committee.
“This is all about transparency,” McCarthy said when asked why he released the tapes. “I think it’s better for transparency that anyone can make their own decision up, and as we walk through these, there are many more hours of tapes than the January 6 committee told us.”
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According to the lawsuit, the media outlets claim federal authorities have yet to disseminate the footage, forcing them to ask a Washington, D.C. federal judge to comply with the requests.
“That denial of access is a stark change of pace for these Plaintiffs, as over the past two years they have diligently, cooperatively, and successfully pursued and obtained access to thousands of videos of the Capitol riot that have been used as evidence or otherwise become judicial records in more than a hundred cases in this District against those charged with organizing or participating in the riot,” the lawsuit states.
McCarthy assured reporters that Capitol Police were part of the process of sharing clips with Carlson’s team and security would be “taken care of.” Still, Capitol Police told The Hill that the agency requested “that any clips be shown to us first for a security review” but that so far, it had “only been given the ability to preview a single clip out of the multiple clips that aired.”