Johnson admits he blurred faces of Jan. 6 rioters: 'We don’t want them to be retaliated against'
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) admitted on Tuesday that he made sure rioters' faces in newly released January 6 footage were blurred out in order to shield their identities from law enforcement.
"We're going through a methodical process of releasing [videos] as quickly as we can," Johnson said in remarks initially posted by C-SPAN. "As you know, we have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day, because we don't want them to be retaliated against and be charged by the DOJ."
"All of those tapes, at the end, will be out so Americans can draw their own conclusion," he added.
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Johnson has pledged to release more than 44,000 hours of total footage from the US Capitol's surveillance cameras in the coming months. The speaker has accused Democrats and the media of trying to "advance a narrative," though a November article in the New York Times reported that the Louisiana Republican's decision to release the footage will be used by far-right activists to advance their own narratives in an attempt to "rewrite the history of the Capitol attack."
In comments to Johnson's remarks posted to X (formerly Twitter), users of the platform opined that Johnson was an "interference in an ongoing investigation" and that the speaker was "actively protecting criminals."
"If you’re blurring someone’s face to 'protect' them from criminal prosecution, then you are committing a crime in covering it up," Democratic activist Scott Dworkin tweeted.
"[Rioters] should be identified and charged if they committed crimes," X user Ramon Caudle wrote. "Does this make Mike Johnson [an] accessory to crimes?"
READ MORE: LA Republican arrested on Jan. 6 charges after posting 'livestream from inside the Capitol': report
Johnson was one of the initial architects of the legal arguments that led up to the January 6 riots that killed five people and injured hundreds of others — including members of both the US Capitol Police Department and the DC Metropolitan Police Department. In the days leading up to the deadly attack on the Capitol, House Republicans privately warned Johnson that "populist rage" could boil over and result in chaos on the day Congress was scheduled to certify the electoral college count.
Watch video of Johnson's remarks below or by clicking this link.
