Legal experts say Tucker Carlson’s release of previously hidden J6 footage could really hurt the Department of Justice’s cases against hundreds of defendants.
One lawyer who is representing five different J6 defendants said the bombshell footage of Jan. 6 proves that DOJ prosecutors purposefully hid “plainly exculpatory” footage from the defendants and their counsel, the Washington Examiner reported. The lawyer made a request for a mistrial after Carlson’s airing of the Jan. 6 footage.
Roger Roots, another attorney representing a Jan. 6 defendant, said the withheld footage is evidential proof that capitol police officers invited protestors into the Senate chamber. “This footage is plainly exculpatory; as it establishes that the Senate chamber was never violently breached, and — in fact — was treated respectfully by January 6 protestors,” Roots wrote in a court filing.
“To the extent that protesters entered the chamber, they did so under the supervision of Capitol Police. The Senators on January 6 could have continued proceedings,” Roots added.
Albert Watkins, the former attorney for Chansley, told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday that he had not seen the Jan. 6 footage first shared Monday on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” while serving his client.
Watkins said the footage proves Chansley did not have all the evidence to decide whether he should go to trial or take a plea.
“This is a man who had tremendous intelligence, very gentle, very, very articulate who was diagnosed 15 years earlier by the government with a mental health issue… and the government knew that,” Watkins told Carlson. “The government knew through three hearings when we begged and pleaded to get this man out of solitary confinement, literally falling into an abyss, mentally.”
“And through each of those three hearings that government assistant U.S. attorney knew the most important aspect of that hearing was that Jake was not violent. The government knew,” he continued. “They knew that Jake had walked around with all of these police officers. They had that video footage. I didn’t get it. It wasn’t disclosed to me. It wasn’t provided to me. I requested it. I filed the requisite pleadings for it. And whether I did or not, they had a duty – and absolute duty – with zero discretion to provide it to me.”
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