Matt Gaetz Says Jan. 6 Video Footage Will Be Released to Public Within ‘Days’

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks with reporters in Washington on Oct. 16, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Members of the public will soon be able to view thousands of hours worth of surveillance video footage recorded on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying the 2020 election, according to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

The Congressman made the comments on Nov. 16 on Sirius XM’s “The Wilkow Majority” show, noting that some of the footage will be available to the public online within a matter of days.

“I can break some news with you,” Mr. Gaetz said. “You know, the way that the January 6 tapes will be released will be through a website where any member of the public can go and observe the videos that are being released.”

“My expectation is they’re going to be released in tranches and that the first tranche of the tapes to be released will be in, you know, days, not weeks,” he told host Andrew Wilkow.

Mr. Gaetz’s comments come months after Fox News host Tucker Carlson was given temporary access to more than 40,000 hours of Capitol Police security footage. Mr. Carlson was given dozens of video clips for broadcast on his program, not the full video database.

The recordings were initially handed over to Mr. Carlson by then-House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who later vowed to “slowly roll out” the security footage recorded during the breach to news outlets.

The Epoch Times and journalists John Solomon and Julie Kelly were given months of exclusive access to video from more than 1,000 security cameras by Speaker McCarthy. From some of that video, The Epoch Times produced a special, “The Jan. 6 Tapes,” which aired Aug. 11 on EpochTV.

Mr. Wilkow aired some of the clips on March 6, 2023, telling the audience that, when taken “as a whole” the video record “does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection.”

“In fact, it demolishes that claim,” Mr. Carlson, who has since departed Fox News, said when airing the footage.

Supporters of protesters who were arrested as a result of Jan 6, 2021, protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court on the second anniversary of the breach of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2023. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Republicans Call for Footage to Be Released

However, the full footage is yet to be released to the public, although it is accessible by news outlets and Jan. 6 defendants under a policy released by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, which is the custodian of the footage taken on the day.

Mr. McCarthy was ousted as speaker in early October, in an effort led by Mr. Gaetz and a number of other Republicans.

New Speaker Mike Johnson, (R-La.)—who on Tuesday endorsed former President Donald Trump in his bid to reclaim the White House in 2024—is now facing mounting pressure to make the footage available to the public as Republicans have raised concerns over the treatment of some of the individuals who were arrested over Jan. 6-related offenses.

More than 1,200 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states in relation to the Capitol breach, including more than 400 individuals who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, which is a felony, according to the Department of Justice.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Mr. Gaetz’s comments came on the same day that House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) subpoenaed Bank of America (BoA) for information over the company’s alleged sharing of private customer data with the FBI on and after the day of Jan. 6, 2021.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) speaks to the press after coming out of the Hunter Biden special counsel David Weiss’s closed-door testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on Nov. 7, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Jordan Subpoenas Bank of America

The lawmaker subpoenaed the bank as part of the Judiciary Committee’s and Weaponization Select Subcommittee’s probe into major banks sharing Americans’ private financial data with the FBI “without legal process” for transactions made in the District of Columbia between Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, 2021.

Lawmakers said BoA “provided the FBI—voluntarily and without any legal process—with a list of individuals who made transactions in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area using a BoA credit or debit card” between those dates.

“Documents obtained by the Committee and Select Subcommittee show that the FBI also provided BoA with specific search query terms, indicating that the FBI was ‘interested in all financial relationships’ of BoA customers transacting in Washington D.C. and that had made ’ANY historical purchase' of a firearm, or those who had purchased a hotel, Airbnb, or airline travel within a given date range,” lawmakers said.

The bank later asserted that its actions “were within a legal process initiated by the United States Department of the Treasury,” according to Republicans.

“Contrary to these assertions, however, documents on file with the Committee and Select Subcommittee indicate that the FBI—not the U.S. Department of the Treasury—initiated contact directly to BoA, and without legal process,” Mr. Jordan’s office said in a statement.

The committee subpoenaed multiple documents from the bank, including internal communications about the decision to transfer the information to the FBI, any communications that the bank had with the agency and other information.

BoA has until Dec. 15 to comply with the subpoena.