Computer programmer downloaded key impeachment videos as Parler went offline

Much of the video footage presented by House impeachment managers in former President Trump’s Senate trial was downloaded from Parler by an anonymous programmer before the platform went offline.

Amazon Web Services in January pulled its hosting support for Parler, the social media platform favored by many on the far right, amid reports it had been used to coordinate the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The programmer, who downloaded about 30 terabytes of video, told CNN she “had an efficient way to download it all. I knew what was there, but it seemed that nobody else could see the value.”

The programmer, who uses the Twitter name @donk_enby, told the network that she hoped the use of her downloads at Trump’s trial “inspires more people with similar skills to mine to use those skills for good.” She told CNN she is not based in the U.S. and all of the videos were publicly accessible before Parler went offline.

Nonprofit news outlet ProPublica on Jan. 17 posted hundreds of videos scraped from the platform. Video footage, much of it never before viewed by the public, has been central to House impeachment managers’ case against the former president. On Wednesday, they presented footage showing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman steering Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) away from the approaching mob.

CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan tweeted that the public and Congress “might not have seen them [the videos] at all had it not been for @donk_enby.”

Many, many of videos the House impeachment managers are using as evidence today came from Parler.

But we might not have seen them at all had it not been for @donk_enby.
https://t.co/ZfyVZ88Mol

— Donie O’Sullivan (@donie) February 10, 2021