Jan. 6 Committee Demanding $20,000 to Release Surveillance Video

Sometimes you just have to say C’Mon! when you see the Washington news. Seriously?

A carefully selected group of Congress members have been investigating the January 6 riots, also known as the “insurrection”, while withholding any information that could compromise the narrative they are creating. This includes surveillance camera footage from the day of the riots.

This was apparently not enough. The committee began to look into the events of the previous days, focusing on the identification of Republican members of Congress who accompanied “insurrectionists” on reconnaissance tours of Congress. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (Republican from Georgia) has been pressing the committee for the video that shows Loudermilk leading visitors through the Capitol on these “reconnaissance tours”.

The committee has so far refused to accept. The committee is now claiming that Lowdermilk was involved in the “reconnaissance tour”.

The iron will of Nancy Pelosi and congressional rules have prevented the release of any other than the carefully selected video. But that is not an absolute bar. Through the Speech and Debate clause in the Constitution, members are not allowed to speak from the floor during the performance of their duties. This was used in the past to allow Harry Reid, former Democrat Leader, to accuse Mitt Romney of not paying taxes. (Later, Reid’s explanation: “He lost, didn’t he?”)

According to The Hill, the House Administration Committee plans to release the video by itself. You can get a copy of this video.

According to a senior aide to The Hill, “Clearly things have changed when one of our committee members is being insinuated he led reconnaissance tour in the Capitol on January 5th when we know for certain the video footage proves otherwise.”

The cost is estimated at $20,000.

A casual observer might be puzzled at the price. A casual search on B&H reveals several 20-terabyte drives available for as low as $600 to $1000. What amount of data are we talking about?

It is easy to calculate a back-of-envelope estimate. Let’s say that all the surveillance cameras record in full high-definition and full color. This seems excessively generous based on surveillance camera footage.

HD video takes 1.5 gigabytes and 1.5 billion bytes of data per hour. A 1TB hard drive can store 667 hours of HD video. A $1000 20 TB disc will hold more than 13,000 hours.

Published reports state that Capitol Police has 14,000 hours worth of video since January 6th. For all that video, two 20 TB drives should suffice. This is not only for the “hundreds” of hours the committee would like to release.

Something clearly stinks.