Fitton: Judicial Watch Sues Capitol Police for Riot Emails and Video

As we might expect of an agency overseen by four Congressional committees, the U.S. Capitol Police is not a model of transparency or accountability.

We don’t trust Nancy Pelosi (or, frankly, any other politician) to honestly examine the many controversies surrounding January 6, and so we want a closer look.

Judicial Watch, stepping up for the American people, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Capitol Police seeking emails and videos concerning the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 (Judicial Watch v. United States Capitol Police (No. 1:21-cv-00401)).

We sued under the common law right of access to public records after the Capitol Police refused to provide any records in response to our January 21, 2021, request for:

• Email communications between the U.S. Capitol Police Executive Team and the Capitol Police Board concerning the security of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The timeframe of this request is from January 1, 2021 through January 10, 2021.
• Email communications of the Capitol Police Board with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concerning the security of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The timeframe of this request is from January 1, 2021through January 10, 2021.
• All video footage from within the Capitol between 12 pm and 9 pm on January 6, 2021

Conveniently, Congress exempts itself from the Freedom of Information Act, and the Capitol Police declined to give us any records about the riot, writing in a February 11, 2021, letter that the requested emails and videos are not “public records.”

However, the public has a right to know about how Congress handled security and what all the videos show of the U.S. Capitol riot. What are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer trying to hide from the American people?