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Capitol Police general counsel “was shown only one” of the nearly 40 clips aired by Tucker Carlson
Lawyers for D.C.’s Capitol police say House Republicans ignored multiple requests from the department to review footage released to the public by Fox News. According to a sworn affidavit released Friday, Capitol Police general counsel Thomas DiBiase “was shown only one” of the nearly 40 clips aired by Fox host Tucker Carlson.
Carlson was granted access to over 40,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in February. After weeks of review, Carlson used a cherry-picked set of videos to frame the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol as a sightseeing excursion by “orderly and meek” tourists.
In the filing, DiBiase indicated that Capitol Police first learned that Carlson had been granted access to the footage via media reports. Carlson’s “access was not previewed with the Capitol Police nor was the Capitol Police informed before that access was granted,” he wrote.
“During numerous conversations with the [Committee on House Administration] Staff Director over several weeks, I emphasized the Capitol Police’s desire to review every footage clip, whether it was on the Sensitive List or not, if it was going to be made public,” DiBiase attested, “this was the same process followed by the Select Committee and the prosecutors in all of the criminal cases.”
According to DiBiase, the Committee on House Administration did not disclose to Capitol Police that they intended to share access to the footage for review.
In the aftermath of Carlson’s airing of the footage, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger blasted the show’s depiction of the riot in a memo obtained by NPR. Mager called allegations by Carlson that law enforcement had acted as “tour guides” for rioters “outrageous and false.”
McCarthy and his staff claim that the footage aired by Fox was done so with the approval of the USCP General Counsel. “We worked with the Capitol Police ahead of time to identify any security-sensitive footage and made sure it wasn’t released,” a spokesperson for McCarthy told Politico. “In subsequent conversations, the USCP General Counsel confirmed that the department concluded there are no security concerns with what was released.”
