A federal judge in Washington told the U.S. Department of Justice on March 3 that he was not impressed with their argument to keep the video footage from three undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers under court seal.
That video allegedly shows at least one of the officers pushing people up the northwest steps of the Capitol and encouraging them to continue toward the entrance, according to court papers filed by Pope earlier in the case.
One officer who was walking behind Ashli Babbitt on the steps reportedly made comments about how “someone will get shot.” This took place just an hour before U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd shot Babbitt outside the Speaker’s Lobby inside the Capitol.
Moran said prosecutors “don’t understand the relevance of these videos to Mr. Pope’s criminal matter and why this is being treated as a discovery issue.”
Contreras said “even if it’s not a criminal discovery issue, it’s a protective order issue. Most discovery is not subject to a protective order unless there’s a special reason. And I’m not hearing a particularly good special reason.”
Moran said she is concerned for the safety of the three officers if the video becomes public.
Prosecutors are “trying to protect the sanctity of other cases, as well as the physical safety of the officers who were participating in filming on this bodycam, or excuse me on this GoPro video,” Moran said.
Pope “candidly says” that part of his motivation with the undercover video is to share it with news media, Moran said.
“In the typical case, discovery is not subject to a protective order. And there’s many a defendant that use the press for their, you know, for their own purposes, and, in particular in high-profile cases,” said Contreras.
“And I didn’t see anything in your pleading that says … anything prevents him from doing that under the law,” the judge said. “So under the protective order, I believe it’s your burden, and I’m not sure you’re there.”
‘Abhorrent Attack’
Pope told the judge that on Jan. 7, 2021, the DOJ “rushed to do a press conference and taint the reputations and inflame public perception of everyone who came to Washington D.C. that day.”“I consider this an abhorrent attack on the First Amendment by them, accusing me of using my First Amendment in a way that hurts them,” Pope said. “I’m not out to do any damage to an officer or hurt the officers. But the public deserves to know what happened on January 6.”
But because much is happening in Congress on possible release of all 41,000 hours of security and other Jan. 6 video to criminal-case defendants, Contreras said he would also defer a decision on that motion.
“I'd like to hear more from the government on what I’m reading in the papers about production of the CCTV video to Tucker Carlson and to, after a point of exclusivity, to other news outlets,” Contreras said.
“…It seems like there’s disclosures being made to individual defendants on a case-by-case basis. I don’t know what case-by-case basis means and why the Speaker gets to choose which defendants get to see what.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in February gave access to 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 video to Fox News. Since then, defense attorneys have been told they would also have access to the full video collection.
Defense attorney Joseph McBride filed a motion with U.S. District Senior Judge Royce Lamberth to delay the trial of Jan. 6 defendant Ryan T. Nichols until the defense team can assess what exculpatory evidence is contained in the 41,000 hours of video.
Pope said he was happy with how the hearing went.
“He’s been pretty open to releasing the undercover MPD video,” Pope told The Epoch Times. “And he wasn’t impressed with the government’s arguments. So things are trending in the right direction on both motions right now.”
