In the wake of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, a perusal of Republican websites and postings showed that several Republican leaders seemed to not only know the attack was coming, but to have actively participated in encouraging the insurgents. That includes not just Donald Trump’s months-long effort to subvert the outcome of the election and enlist white supremacists to the cause of overturning democracy—it also involves both local and national Republican politicians who collaborated with those who smashed through the doors of the House and Senate.
Of those in Congress who encouraged this attack, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert stands out. In part, that’s because of Boebert’s “This is 1776!” tweet on the morning of the assault and her running string of tweets from inside the House chamber, updating insurgents on the movements of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But it’s also because she was one member of Congress who several Democratic members accused of providing tours to large groups of pro-Trump protesters on Jan. 5. Those tours were described by some as “reconnaissance,” with Boebert giving insurgents inside information on routes through the Capitol. On Jan. 6, some of those invading the building were clearly following detailed plans that allowed them to find multiple routes to the Senate and House chambers.
However, despite investigations by both Congress and the FBI, there’s been little subsequent news about Boebert’s insurgency tours. And as the Capitol Police release thousands of hours of surveillance video of the events on Jan. 6, there are also disturbing hints that the evidence against Boebert may have simply been allowed to disappear.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time Lauren Boebert got away with something. As The Denver Post reported last August, Boebert had been arrested at least four times in the last decade. In three cases out of four, charges were either never filed or dropped—including a case in which Boebert repeatedly harassed and threatened her neighbors. Boebert was also allowed to skate away after twice failing to show up for court hearings.
As Politico reports, Capitol Police have now turned over to both the FBI and to congressional investigators over 14,000 hours of video related to the assault on Jan. 6. The footage provided appears to cover the entire period of Jan. 6.
Capitol Police have been cautious about releasing some of this footage expressly because of concerns that it could reveal secrets about how the building is protected, or—as Boebert is accused of doing—might show future insurrectionists the best means of accessing critical locations. Because of this, and because this video will surely be sought by attorneys defending insurgents in upcoming trials, the Capitol Police are apparently working with Congress to craft some form of bill that would allow insurrectionists to see video directly related to their case, but would not give them full access to the full set of material. For now, access by defendants is said to be “strictly limited.”
But in Monday hearings, members of the House Appropriations Committee were distinctly unhappy with Capitol Police General Counsel Thomas DiBiase. In part, that’s because DiBiase has been extremely reluctant to release either footage or details of how the department responded to the Jan. 6 assault.
One critical issue is information from other days. While DiBiase stated that the department had released “a ‘very limited number’ of video clips from Jan. 5 to assist the D.C. police with ‘potential ... incidents,’” it’s not clear that the Capitol Police intend to make other material from the days before Jan. 6 available. In fact, it’s unclear whether that information still exists.
DiBiase refused to say whether the Capitol Police have preserved footage footage from Jan. 5 and provided it to House and Senate committees investigating events leading up to the insurgency. That includes any video that might reveal the truth about Boebert, or others, who might have lead those "reconnaissance tours."
In a sworn affidavit filed in one of the cases involving Jan. 6 violence, the Capitol Police insist that the cameras are present only to “assist in the maintenance of national security” and are “generally not used to collect evidence in criminal matters.” Worse still, the security footage is “automatically purged … within 30 days under normal circumstances.”
Meaning that unless someone at the Capitol Police decided that the footage in the days leading up to Jan. 6 was important to preserve, the evidence of crimes by Boebert or anyone else who helped would-be insurgents find routes around the Capitol may have already been erased.
