DOJ takes on the Jan. 6 Tucker Carlson tapes

The filings are the primary effort by the Justice Division to put limits on any potential efforts by Jan. 6 defendants to make use of the newly disclosed footage to delay their felony proceedings. Nichols’ legal professional, Joseph McBride, urged U.S. District Court docket Decide Royce Lamberth to delay his late-March trial with a view to give Nichols’ protection staff time to assessment the footage, which McBride mentioned he’s been granted entry to by the Home.

Prosecutors emphasised that defendants and their attorneys have had entry to an infinite trove of proof for practically two years — extra then 4.9 million recordsdata totaling practically 7.4 terabytes of knowledge. These recordsdata embody “over 30,000 recordsdata that embody body-worn and hand-held digital camera footage from 5 regulation enforcement businesses and surveillance-camera footage from three regulation enforcement businesses.”

Prosecutors contended that the existence of the extra footage reviewed by Carlson doesn’t essentially entitle defendants to obtain it — notably and not using a foundation for believing it consists of exculpatory content material.

“The Authorities’s discovery obligations in a felony case are correctly restricted to supplies which are probably related to a defendant’s case within the authorities’s possession or management, and the federal government shouldn’t be obliged to accumulate supplies possessed or managed by others,” McCauley wrote, saying a trial shouldn’t be delayed “primarily based on hypothesis about whether or not and when any such extra, probably irrelevant, data could turn into obtainable.”

Protection groups have complained that the overwhelming quantity of fabric has been inconceivable to comb via — at the same time as they demand entry to the in depth new trove. It’s turn into a recurring theme in Jan. 6 instances: Prosecutors have dumped huge caches of proof on protection groups, who constantly declare they don’t have the means or capability to meaningfully assessment it. The Justice Division famous that it has constructed instruments supposed to assist defendants and their attorneys pinpoint related footage by digital camera angle and time of day.

The Justice Division additionally rejected as “untimely” the notion that Carlson’s choice to air among the safety footage Monday ought to result in the Justice Division making the total cache of safety movie public. Prosecutors famous that “restricted” clips aired by Carlson had been practically all included within the preliminary troves of footage supplied to protection attorneys, which incorporates practically all the footage inside and outdoors the Capitol from 12 p.m. to eight p.m. on Jan. 6.

“Practically all of the footage displayed on this system has lengthy been within the authorities’s manufacturing to protection counsel and, in some instances, has additionally been admitted in public hearings and/or trials and has been obtainable to, launched to, and/or printed by information media,” the division famous.

Prosecutors additionally argued that there’s nonetheless good purpose to not extensively launch all safety footage; “Disclosure of all CCV footage couldn’t solely reveal the U.S. Capitol’s inner surveillance system to 3rd events however may additionally jeopardize the privateness and safety of sure individuals depicted on such CCV footage.”