DOJ takes on the Jan. 6 Tucker Carlson tapes

Prosecutors emphasized that defendants and their lawyers have had access to an enormous trove of evidence for nearly two years.

“The United States does not know the extent of any material that a member of the legislative branch purportedly provided to other individuals,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McCauley wrote in a court filing connected to prominent Jan. 6 defendant Ryan Nichols. “This Court should not commit to an indefinite trial extension for this Defendant, or for any defendants, based on the unsupported allegation that pertinent information may exist somewhere, but is not currently known to either the prosecution or the defense.”

The filings are the first effort by the Justice Department to place limits on any potential efforts by Jan. 6 defendants to use the newly disclosed footage to prolong their criminal proceedings. Nichols’ attorney, Joseph McBride, urged U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth to delay his late-March trial in order to give Nichols’ defense team time to review the footage, which McBride said he’s been granted access to by the House.

Prosecutors contended that the existence of the additional footage reviewed by Carlson does not necessarily entitle defendants to receive it — particularly without a basis for believing it includes exculpatory content.

The Justice Department also rejected as “premature” the notion that Carlson’s decision to air some of the security footage Monday should lead to the Justice Department making the full cache of security film public. Prosecutors noted that “limited” clips aired by Carlson were nearly all included in the initial troves of footage provided to defense attorneys, which includes nearly all of the footage inside and outside the Capitol from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Jan. 6.

“Nearly all the footage displayed on the program has long been in the government’s production to defense counsel and, in some cases, has also been admitted in public hearings and/or trials and has been available to, released to, and/or published by news media,” the department noted.

Prosecutors also argued that there’s still good reason not to widely release all security footage; “Disclosure of all CCV footage could not only reveal the U.S. Capitol’s internal surveillance system to third parties but could also jeopardize the privacy and security of certain persons depicted on such CCV footage.” LINK