Speaker Johnson Explains Holdup In Releasing Jan 6 Tapes: ‘We Have To Blur Some Of The Faces’ To Protect Them From The DOJ

Flying Squid@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 787 points – Mike Johnson Explains Holdup In Releasing Jan 6 Tapes: 'We Have To Blur Some Of The Faces'
mediaite.com

Yes. You read that right. Johnson is saying that he is intentionally hiding insurrectionists from prosecution in the release of tapes that Republicans claim will vindicate them on January 6th.

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Far-right Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and former President Donald Trump have praised Johnson’s promise to release the footage, saying it will “prove” that the activities of Jan. 6, 2021, were peaceful.

Only morons and guilty people believe this. I saw evidence to the contrary on live broadcast.

Someone was peacefully trampled to death, Ashley Babbitt was peacefully shot breaking into the capitol, and those were gallows of peace.

They literally dragged a security guard out of the door and beat him to death. Because of all the preconditions that the seditionists set up, there were few guards and they didn't escalate. It saved their lives at least, but it was corrupt to the core

I think you're confusing Michael Fanone (dragged out, tased and beaten, had a heart attack but survived) with Brian Sicknick (had a stroke late that night and died the next day). To my knowledge, Sicknick wasn't involved in any assault that is believed to have caused his death.

(Before anyone jumps down my throat, I think all the Jan 6th rioters are traitors. I just think it's important to be accurate.)

Honestly I saw the thing live and read some time after that security guards died and just put two and two together

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Wait, I thought they backed tracked that claim of beating to death. Instead it was determined it was something else that was a result of that day. Heart attack or something along the lines.

Natural causes…that resulted from being beaten to half an inch of his life and left to die, yeah?

They record the final cause (heart attack, aneurism,) as being the cause… but no one who reads the autopsy report with even half a brain really thinks he would be alive today if the beating never happened

“Officially” it was “natural causes” and a total “coincidence” that a Trump-supporting cop was beaten to near-death by other Trump supporters and died within hours. Naturally. As one does.

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I was gonna say, we watched the events play out live on both news and social media. Peaceful protestors don't scale the walls of the capitol building, bulldoze baracades, and threaten capitol police, all while chanting stop the steal.

That’s like saying a school shooting was peaceful because over 99.9% of people weren’t being violent.

Also all the people who went to jail for being peaceful.

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Wouldn’t the DOJ have already seen this footage. Why would Congress have access to security footage that the cops don’t have already have access to?

This smells like some sort of play for time and or a way for GOP leaders to pretend to have their base’s backs.

Yup, it’s just theatre. Their idiot base will eat it right up too, because they are hateful idiots.

A lot of citizens coming through footage have been helpful in identifying the seditionists. We need to demand the raw footage and dox the rest of the criminals.

Probably because https://seditionhunters.org/ will also be looking at the footage for better quality images of people. They provided a lot of the initial investigation cited in charging documents so far.

Half the country takes their bullshit seriously.

Those are the stupids, who are fucking nuts, whose bullshit is being spoken of.

Just to chime in with the chorus. But half the country even voting is rare. It only happens sometimes during presidential years. And almost never on the in between years. And even then, especially at the national level. Republicans almost never win the popular vote. Republicans have boiled their base down to the most bat shit, irrational, and dedicated people. It isn't going to shrink anymore. But the good news is that they're not even close to half the country, and they're not likely to grow either. If the rest of us realized this, organized and voted responsibility. They'd be stuck running for dog catcher in some Podunk shit hole. And likely losing because of their history of animal torture and abuse.

Why would you have to blur the faces of people doing nothing illegal or wrong?

So they're not still claiming they were FBI plants or Antifa?

Fuck it, at this point the GOP thinks they were peaceful Antifa Trump-supporting FBI Agents Provacateur.

Or something.

I'm so confused by the GOP play here. I, along with hundreds of millions of people, saw this unfolding live on TV. Do they think that by releasing more footage we're going to somehow be less mad?

This will appeal to their idiot voters who will say "look! 99% of the time they were peaceful! Nothing happened! You're making a big deal of nothing.'

I dunno man, if I see 99% of the crowd is there in areas they're not supposed to be with the intent on stopping the election certification, I don't care if they're arm in arm singing kumbaya, I want them in jail.

Wonder if they'll include time stamps on the footage or just find the angles that work best for the time stamps to try and show it 'wasn't that serious'. Either way I'm sure it'll reinforce many people's view that it was not a riot or insurrection. I don't think this is true (just thinking how they will spin it), I'm Canadian and was quite worried for the US that day, well more than the usual days of Trump anyways. Trying to compare it for when people only look at news that help them feel satisfied with their view rather than properly look at evidence. One thing Republicans can do is spew propaganda in their favour and their base will nod in agreement.

And 99% of the time a bank robber was doing normal stuff too. They're still a felon.

Haha that's a good point. I'd love to see a lawyer try that argument that in court. "You'll notice in this footage here that my client is standing in the bank doing nothing wrong. Yes, they're wearing a ski mask and holding a gun, but at this point they are just standing in the bank, waiting for the teller to give them money, just like everyone else."

Lmao

Bonus points if they bring their own stills from the security camera with the face blurred out.

Also... That's not even my client, it's some leftist terrorist. But also, nothing wrong going on here. But also, that money really does belong to my client and the bank should be ashamed of themselves.

No, they're going to keep drilling their talking points. The GOP aren't doing engagement rhetoric anymore, they're manufacturing consent for their next coup attempt. DOJ have tipped their hand and aren't going after open and unrepentant criminals in power.

Speaker Johnson implicates House GOP in conspiracy to obstruct justice and commits high treason along the way

Pikachu face when we unblur them with AI & send another 600 of his #fascist supporters to Federal prison.

BTW, #Jan6th has been adjudicated as an insurrection, twice. This is quite literally giving aid & comfort to enemies of the USA.

we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other concerns and problems

I thought bringing charges against people was a basic job requirement at DOJ.

This guy’s like no no no hol’ up lemme get this one because…why?

Ever since Reagan, the Republican party has been trying to destroy and dismantle the United States federal government. Their goal is no government.

The party of law and order sure doesn't trust the department in charge of law and order and seems to want to protect criminals.

I remember when many GOP lawmakers were reliving what happened on 1/6, and talking about how Trump almost got THEM killed, and I thought finally, we were going to see some action, thought they would finally have Trump cooked. So naive, I was.

I fully believe it has to do with Project2025. They want it so bad they are willing to die for it, and in all likelihood even kill for it.

see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials.

Dude, just stop.

I live on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean and I clearly saw many laws being broken via a live internet stream. Everyone in the world with the opportunity who cared and/or fretted enough did.

Jericho Johnson is trying to change what the world has already seen clearly INTO the alternative reality interpretation of a small group of government officials.

Wait, can someone get his son on the horn to see if this is some kind of Japanese porn blur fetish thing?

his son’s face when the footage comes out all pixelated with black lines through it rather than a smooth blur will be priceless

They have to blur the faces to keep the public from helping identify them and thus help the DoJ.

How come excrements like this get to sit as the speaker of the house is beyond me

Something is seriously wrong with the world

The RepubliQan Party don’ need no steenking badges

Judeo-Christian fascists running the United States of America

Antisemitism detected

The culture of the west is often referred to as 'Judeo-Christian', they aren't saying jews run the US but referring to the common origin of Judaism and Christianity, though the term is seen as problematic

So he is going to release fabricated evidence at best and tampered evidence at worst. Way to go GOP!

Sooooo, the party of "law and order" wants to hide the faces of LAW BREAKERS? Yeah, fuck no, go fuck yourself. How can anyone support this shit? If you support this, you're either a fucking criminal or a piece of shit. No in between.

"We have to blur some of the faces to protect them from the DOJ obstruct justice."

Forget the fact that the DOJ already has the tapes and this dude is just signalling to Republican voters, why would it be the purview of the Speaker of the House to obstruct DOJ investigations and admit to it publicly?

Yeah but the public hasn't seen them and they don't want the FBI to get tips from the public leading them to be arrested.

We’re working steadily on it. We’ve hired additional personnel to do that

I wonder what the hourly rate of a GOP Face Blurrer/Justice Obstructor is. I bet the dollar number is smaller than the maximum number of years in prison they would each be facing if the DOJ was still allowed to pursue justice..

That would be a perfect reason to get rid of him: If that is not "giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States" as laid out in paragraph 3 of amendment 14, what would one need to do to achieve that status?

I hope one day justice will be done to the Republicans.

Taxpayer funded obstruction of justice and whitewashing

Almost positive the government has the tech to see through blurred faces. The alphabet boys will track down everyone they need to regardless.

That would depend in the degree of blur. If it is the average blur you'd have in japanese pornography, then no, that tech does not exist. Super resolution is good, but not that good.

And no, I have not tried.

If they did, it'd be the same as the "enhance" tech from the tv shows.

Blurring causes information loss, the blurrier it is, the more information is lost.

After a certain point, so much is lost that nothing's gonna help you get it back.

It depends on how the blur is done. A lot of the simple blurring teqniques have publicly available tools for reversing. If you need to hide information by blurring, make sure the blur you are using was designed with that in mind (as opposed to being an artsy feature)

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The party of doxxing courtroom staff so that OJ's supporters can murder them wants to protect the identities of insurrectionists.

That's called evidence tampering!

Nah, the originals are already in the hands of the DOJ, after the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Secret Service got their copies.