Prosecutors with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia have released new footage from the office’s Capitol Breach Investigation showing so-called “insurrectionists” walking slowing and peacefully into and through the US Capitol on Jan. 6.
According to Julie Kelly at American Greatness, the video evidence “clearly contradicts many of the government’s allegations about what happened on January 6” and “proves law enforcement held open doors and did not stop protesters from coming inside.”
The videos were first published Monday morning by Buzzfeed’s Zoe Tillman. They were released by prosecutors following a petition by Jan. 6 defendant Ethan Nordean and a September ruling from US District Chief Judge Beryl Howell ordering video evidence to be released in a similar case. Nordean is attempting to prove that police allowed him to enter the building.
In Kelly’s description, “one officer held open the interior door that accesses the Capitol Rotunda, a space between the House and Senate wings. Five or six unidentified men exited the door and spoke to the officer before leaving.
Those men held open the exterior double-doors, where protesters began filing into the building. Nordean’s lawyer said his client is recorded entering the building, with the consent of police, between 2:37 p.m. and 2:38 p.m.”
In related news, the Associated Press reported that an Alabama man named Christian Manley has been arrested in Alaska after the FBI showed an informant still photos from Jan. 6 surveillance video. Manley is alleged to have “approached the Capitol with a can of pepper spray,” which he then sprayed “toward officers inside the Lower West Terrace archway of the Capitol.”
