A federal prosecutor made a rather explosive filing on Friday, admitting that three police officers helped instigate parts of the crowd on January 6th.
The case, which is before US District Judge Rudolph Contreras, involves a defendant named William Pope who is seeking to uncover the videos in question. Prosecutors are none too happy about that, arguing that “unmasking” the videos would put police officers at risk (The Epoch Times).
A federal prosecutor admitted in court papers that three D.C. Metropolitan Police Department undercover officers acted as provocateurs at the northwest steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The admission came in a March 24 filing before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that seeks to keep video footage shot by the officers under court seal.
Prosecutors accused the case defendant—William Pope of Topeka, Kansas—of an “illegitimate” attempt to unmask the video as part of his alleged strategy to try the case in the news media. Pope filed a motion to remove the court seal on Feb. 21.
“The defendant is not entitled to ‘undesignate’ these videos to share them with unlimited third parties,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moran. “His desire to try his case in the media rather than in a court of law is illegitimate, and the government has met its burden to show the necessity of the protective order.”
So what’s on the videos? Part of it has already leaked on Rumble, and there are three officers involved, one of which directly encourages the crowd on the northwest steps to advance on the Capitol. Astonishingly, they even join in with the protesters, chanting along with the crowd.
Officer 1 repeatedly joined in chants of “Drain the swamp!” and “Our house! Our house! Our house!”
A little closer to the Capitol, the video captures a protester shouting, “Joe Biden! We wanna hear you speak, you [expletive] pedophile satanist [expletive]!”
A short time later, Officer 1 joined the crowd in a “USA!” chant, repeating the phrase five times.
At the foot of the northwest stairs, someone leaned part of a bicycle rack against the balustrade. As a protester climbed up the makeshift ladder, Officer 1 shouted, “C’mon, man, let’s go! Leave that sh*t.”
Officer 1 got help from a protester climbing onto the balustrade of the steps. Then, surveying the people moving up the staircase, he shouted, “C’mon, go, go, go!”
Officer 1 encouraged the crowd to move up the stairs with repeated shouts, “Keep going! Keep going!” and “Keep going, keep going, come on!”…
…“At other times in these videos, the officer and the two other plainclothes officers with him appear to join the crowd around them in various chants, including “drain the swamp,” “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”, and “Whose house? Our house!”
This provides more evidence that January 6th grew out of confusion and not some organized plot to overthrow the government. When you have protesters being urged on by police officers, that then provides some level of authority to advance on and enter the Capitol Building. In other words, as many defendants have claimed in court proceedings, the protesters felt that the police were on their side, and they didn’t believe they were breaking the law (I’m speaking specifically of those who did not get violent).
As to the notion that releasing this footage would put the lives of officers at risk, that’s laughable. In almost no other case is body cam (or other footage such as in this case) kept hidden due to completely unsubstantiated risks. In fact, it is typically the left that is shouting for the release of footage the loudest after any incident, justified or not.
These prosecutors want to bury the rest of this footage for two reasons. One, it severely harms their case against Pope, and two, it is embarrassing for those who have pushed the “insurrection” narrative. It’s the same reason the January 6th committee kept so much footage hidden. The government wants to tell one story and one story only, no matter how misleading or incomplete it is. But the truth of the situation, as with most things in life, is far more complicated.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member