Sources are claiming that the House Jan. 6 Committee deleted over 100 encrypted files just days before the Republicans took control to hide documents and evidence.
Fox News Digital is reporting that Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) is leading an investigation into what happened on Jan. 6 including security failures and “actions” taken by the former select committee investigating the Capitol riot.
“Loudermilk, last week, told Fox News Digital his investigation has entered a ‘new phase’ with renewed support from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has committed additional resources to the panel’s investigation,” Fox News reported.
“Sources familiar with Loudermilk’s investigation told Fox News Digital that, per House rules, the former select committee, which was chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., was required to turn over all documents from its investigation to the new, GOP-led panel, after Republicans secured the majority of the House of Representatives following the 2022 midterm elections,” the media outlet revealed.
Thank you @SpeakerJohnson for your continued support. https://t.co/FfkUo950Z7
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) January 15, 2024
“Sources told Fox News Digital that Thompson had told Loudermilk that the select committee would turn over four terabytes of archived data, but that the new committee only received approximately two terabytes of data,” Fox News added.
Loudermilk’s committee hired a digital forensics team that set out to scrape the hard drives attempting to find out what information was missing. According to Fox News, 117 files were encrypted and deleted. They were wiped on Jan. 1, 2023, as the Republicans were coming into power in the House of Representatives. That was just days before Thompson was required to turn them over to the new committee.
Loudermilk is now demanding answers and passwords from Thompson so he can access the files that are encrypted.
“As you acknowledged in your July 7, 2023 letter, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Select Committee) did not archive all Committee records as required by House Rules,” Loudermilk wrote in a letter sent to Thompson. “You wrote that you sent specific transcribed interviews and depositions to the White House and Department of Homeland Security but did not archive them with the Clerk of the House.”
Loudermilk said that Thompson “claimed that you turned over 4 terabytes of digital files, but the hard drives archived by the Select Committee with the Clerk of the House contain less than 3 terabytes of data.”
House Jan. 6 Select Committee Deleted Over 100 Encrypted Files Before GOP Takeover
Forensic team discovers 117 deleted and encrypted files from the Capitol riot probe. The GOP-led committee received only two terabytes of data instead of the expected four.
All deleted files from… pic.twitter.com/evaWzZbTPU
— UngaTheGreat (@UngaTheGreat) January 22, 2024
Loudermilk informed Thompson that his experts were able to recover “numerous digital records from hard drives archived by the Select Committee.”
“One recovered file disclosed the identity of an individual whose testimony was not archived by the Select Committee,” he said in the letter. “Further, we found that most of the recovered files are password-protected, preventing us from determining what they contain.”
Loudermilk also sent letters to the White House general counsel and the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security requesting “unedited and unredacted transcripts” of White House and DHS testimony to the former select committee, according to Fox News.
Those were not turned over either by Thompson but Loudermilk’s committee knows the transcripts of those interviews exist. Loudermilk is demanding a response from the White House and DHS by Jan. 24.
Just when you think the government couldn’t possibly betray citizens any more, they destroy documents that belong to the public.
The overreach is borderline tyrannical at this point.
House Jan. 6 Committee deleted more than 100 encrypted files just days before GOP took…
— Carissa (@njoyzgrl81) January 22, 2024
“It’s obvious that Pelosi’s Select Committee went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation. It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules,” Loudermilk bluntly charged in the interview with Fox News Digital.
“The American people deserve to know the full truth, and Speaker Johnson has empowered me to use all tools necessary to recover these documents to get the truth, and I will,” he vowed.
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