Washington, D.C. – has set a price of more than $1.5 million to release body camera footage from the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, to a legal watchdog group, effectively demanding a ransom.
Judicial Watch informed Secrets today that the District lawyers stated that there are over 1,756 Metropolitan Police Department videos spanning 1,047 hours and that they want $25 per minute to edit and produce the videos from body cameras worn by city police during the daylong riot.
According to the conservative legal group, this amounts to a $1,570,635 bill.
“There has never been a legitimate reason to withhold the January 6 police body cam videos,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “If they wanted the videos out for political reasons, they’d be public, but instead the D.C. government wants more than $1.5 million in order for the public to view its January 6 videos,” according to him.
Prior to President Donald Trump’s pardon of all of the Jan. 6 suspects and convicts, the police stated that they were unable to release the videos to the public because they were part of numerous Department of Justice investigations.
The police now claim that editing out personal information is simply too expensive to hand over the videos for free.
“The District reiterates that the [body work camera] footage may capture certain personnel, namely third parties, who maintain cognizable privacy interests in their names, images, and likenesses, and disclosure of these people’s identities would not serve the public interest nor shed light on MPD’s performance of its statutory duties,” according to city lawyers.
“Teresa Quon Hyden, MPD’s assistant general counsel, calculated the total hours of responsive footage as 1,047.09 and estimated that redacting these videos would cost at least $25 per minute of footage.
MPD would need to find a vendor to implement these redactions, and it is unclear whether the District would need to solicit bids from multiple vendors for such a large project,” according to the city’s filing.
The city’s lawyers have asked Judicial Watch to seek less footage and to assist in paying for any edited video that is turned over.
More than any other independent watchdog, Judicial Watch has advocated for complete transparency in the Jan. 6 cases. In this case, it initially sought body camera footage from Officer Michael Fanone, one of the first responders who was attacked by rioters.
