EXCLUSIVE: The former House Select Committee on Jan. 6 deleted more than 100 classified files from its investigation just days before Republicans took over the majority in the House of Representatives, Fox News Digital has learned.
The Oversight Subcommittee of the House Administration Committee led the investigation on January 6, 2021, chaired by Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga. The panel is investigating security failures that day, as well as the “actions” of a former select committee that investigated the Capitol riots.
Loudermilk, last week, told Fox News Digital his investigation had entered a “new phase” with new support from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has committed additional resources to the panel’s investigation.
A source familiar with the Loudermilk investigation told Fox News Digital that, according to House rules, the former select committee, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is required to turn over all documents from his investigation to the new, GOP-led panel, after Republicans gain a majority in the House after the 2022 midterm elections.
Sources told Fox News Digital that Thompson had told Loudermilk that the select committee would hand over four terabytes of archived data, but the new committee only received about two terabytes of data.
Rioters gather at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. AP
Fox News Digital has learned that Loudermilk’s committee hired a digital forensics team to scrape hard drives to determine information that was not provided to them.
The forensic team, according to sources familiar with their search, determined that 117 files had been deleted and encrypted. Sources said the files were deleted on January 1, 2023 – just days before Thompson’s team was required to transfer the data to the new committee.
Fox News Digital has learned that forensics teams have recovered all 117 deleted and encrypted files. Now, Loudermilk demands answers and passwords to access the data.
Rioters confront police at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. AP
Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the letter Loudermilk sent to Thompson, requesting access to digital files recovered by his forensics team.
“As you acknowledged in your July 7, 2023 letter, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol (Select Committee) did not archive all Committee records as required by House Rules,” Loudermilk wrote. “You wrote that you sent specifically transcribed interviews and depositions to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security but did not file them with the Clerk of the House.”
Loudermilk added that Thompson also “claimed that you turned over 4-terabytes of digital files, but the hard drive archived by the Select Committee with the Clerk of the House contained less than 3-terabytes of data.”
Violent protesters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. AP
Loudermilk explained that after forensic analysis of archived data and hard drives, he was able to recover “many digital records from hard drives archived by the Select Committee.”
“One recovered file reveals the identity of an individual whose testimony was not archived by the Select Committee,” Loudermilk wrote. “Furthermore, we discovered that most of the recovered files were password protected, preventing us from determining their contents.”
Loudermilk asked Thompson to provide him with “a list of passwords for all password-protected files created by the Select Committee” so that his committee could “access these files and make sure they are properly archived.”
Tear gas is fired at a group of protesters during clashes with police at a US Capitol rally January 6, 2021. REUTERS
Meanwhile, Loudermilk also wrote to the White House general counsel and the Department of Homeland Security general counsel, requesting “unredacted and unredacted transcripts” of White House and DHS testimony to the former select committee.
Loudermilk’s committee knew transcripts of these interviews existed, but said they were not turned over by the Thompson-led committee.
Loudermilk demanded that the White House and DHS comply with his request on January 24.
“It is clear that the Pelosi Select Committee has gone to great lengths to prevent the American people from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation. It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intend to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and video as required by House rules,” Loudermilk told Fox News Digital.
“The American people deserve to know the full truth, and Speaker Johnson has authorized me to use all the tools necessary to recover these documents to get the truth, and I will.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
