A new documentary from The Epoch Times on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach will be screened to lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 9.
The event will be hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who praised the documentary in a comment to The Epoch Times.
“The full story of what actually happened on Jan. 6 has yet to be told,” Mr. Johnson said.
“There are so many questions that haven’t even been asked, much less answered. The Epoch Times’ documentaries make a serious and valuable contribution to the public’s right to know the truth.”
Mr. Johnson will be joined at the screening by Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and other lawmakers from both chambers of Congress.
Jan. 6 remains highly controversial, shrouded in political rhetoric and partisan framing.
Democrats argue that the event constituted an attempted “insurrection,” and an “attack on democracy” organized and driven by President Donald Trump.
Republicans have argued that it was at most a small-scale riot and one potentially driven forward by law enforcement provocateurs.
In that installment, Mr. Hanneman and EpochTV “Crossroads” host Joshua Phillips explored the events of Jan. 6, investigating mysterious deaths, police misconduct, and Capitol security’s unpreparedness to handle the crowd that day.
The second installment, released on the third anniversary of the rally, focuses on its lingering effects on U.S. jurisprudence, due process rights, and those caught in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) sweeping manhunt in the aftermath of the rally—the largest ever undertaken by the department.
Mr. Hanneman said that after he investigated the DOJ and FBI response, it became clear to him that the Jan. 6 participants and their families are victims of the “weaponization of the federal government.”
“The story I’m telling is one of two-tiered justice in America,” Mr. Hanneman says in the opening of the documentary. “An open wound that runs far deeper than we realized.”
The documentary reveals that even as many Americans have forgotten and moved past the events of the day, its aftermath remains a daily burden for many.
And the massive manhunt “shows no sign of slowing down,” Mr. Hanneman said, with new arrests continuing to make headlines.
More than 1,100 of these were charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds, a misdemeanor.
A few, however, faced greater charges.
Those deemed ringleaders, including Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers, received the largest prison sentences, 22 years and 18 years respectively.
The manner of these arrests, and the information used to make them, in some cases, have raised questions about FBI protocol amid the agency’s effort to round people up. It’s these concerns that the documentary explores.
It features testimony from FBI whistleblowers like former special agents Stephen Friend and Garrett O'Boyle—each of whom spoke out against the agency’s methods in the wake of Jan. 6 and faced swift retribution for it.
Additionally, Mr. Hanneman told The Epoch Times that the follow-up documentary takes a “more behind-the-scenes look at some of the impacts on families that took place as a result of charges brought against family members.”
Several Jan. 6 defendants have been held in the D.C. Metropolitan Jail, dubbed “the gulag” by its critics for the conditions experienced by those housed there.
They have been denied spiritual advisers, access to their lawyers, and had their bare human needs neglected. They’ve faced physical and verbal harassment from guards and prison staff. They’ve been denied visitation with their spouses, sons, and daughters.
Those not housed in the D.C. jail have nonetheless likewise faced harsh conditions.
The documentary explores how families linked to Jan. 6 have lost income, faced ostracism, and received death threats, such as the Munns of Borger, Texas.
The Munns were the recipient of three simultaneous FBI SWAT raids on three of their properties—but this was only the beginning of their Jan. 6 nightmare.
The Munns lost 70 percent of their income in the year after Jan. 6 due to their presentation in the media as insurrectionaries, as several people canceled contracts with them and tried to distance themselves from the family.
A Facebook post directed at them called for the Munns to be hanged from a tree as traitors.
Eventually, the Munns were forced to leave Borger altogether, citing the ostracism they faced from members of a community they once called their own.
Mr. Hanneman said these and other findings presented in the documentary reveal “the need for a new Jan. 6 committee,” dismissing the original Democrat-led Jan. 6 panel as “a propaganda effort.”
Mr. Hanneman said he hopes that the upcoming documentary screening before members of Congress will “light a fire” among members to pursue this route.
“The true service to the American people is to really fill this picture out,” he said.
