News outlets demand access to Jan. 6 footage McCarthy gave to Tucker Carlson

A group of news outlets are demanding that they receive access to tens of thousands of hours of surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gave to Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this week. 

Attorney Charles Tobin sent a letter on Thursday on behalf of 10 media organizations to congressional leadership to request all closed-circuit camera footage recorded inside the Capitol and on the grounds outside the building as was given to Carlson. 

“The incredible public interest in understanding what transpired on January 6 crosses party lines,” the letter states. 

Tobin, who provided the letter to The Hill, noted comments that McCarthy has made saying that allowing the American public to review the tapes would let “everybody make their own judgment” on what happened and would be in the public’s interest. 

The outlets included in the coalition are Advance Publications, ABC, Axios, CNN, CBS, The E.W. Scripps Company, Gannett, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and ProPublica. 

McCarthy has faced controversy over the past week for providing about 41,000 hours of the surveillance footage exclusively to Carlson and his team. Fox identifies Carlson’s daily program as an opinion show, and Carlson has repeatedly questioned the significance of the attack and the conclusions from the House select committee investigating it. 

McCarthy defended himself in a Wednesday interview with The New York Times on the disclosure, saying that he “promised” to release the footage. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has slammed McCarthy’s decision, saying that he is “needlessly” exposing the Capitol to security risks in showing how it is protected and giving information to people who might want to attack the Capitol in the future. 

Tobin said that the outlets agree with McCarthy that the public’s interest is in the release of the footage and cited a federal appeals court case that found the government cannot selectively exclude certain outlets from information that is otherwise publicly available. 

“Without full public access to the complete historical record, there is concern that an ideologically-based narrative of an already polarizing event will take hold in the public consciousness, with destabilizing risks to the legitimacy of Congress, the Capitol Police, and the various federal investigations and prosecutions of January 6 crimes,” the letter states. 

The letter was sent to McCarthy, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

Tobin also sent an expedited request under the Freedom of Information Act on behalf of the 10 organizations, The Associated Press and The New York Times for the footage.