House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) raised eyebrows Tuesday by saying he intended to obscure the identities of U.S. Capitol rioters when he orders the release of more security footage from the attack.
The Louisiana Republican emphasized that more batches of the videos were coming, but he said the rioters' faces would be blurred to prevent them from being identified.
"As you know, we have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don't want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ," Johnson said.
According to the Department of Justice, more than 1,069 defendants have been charged in the Capitol assault, and at least 594 of them have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges. At least 98 have been convicted at trial, while another 24 have pleaded guilty.
Johnson's comments astonished legal experts and others who've been following the prosecutions.
"One of the most objectionable statements I’ve heard on this from an elected official about January 6th," said legal analyst Ryan Goodman.
"Radical new Republican Speaker brazenly announcing that he'll attempt to obstruct justice," said journalist John Harwood.
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"Siding with people who would maybe like to get away with assaulting cops," asked Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters.
"Wow. Just ... wow," said Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton. "This literally sent a chill down my spine."
"So the FBI somehow has never seen these videos? Can that be right?" said Roger Sollenberg, senior political reporter for The Daily Beast. "Seems more likely to me that the GOP would do this because they wouldn’t want the public to be able to identify people in these videos and then connect them to existing charges and convictions."
"Despite this pathetic pandering to insurrectionists, this nonsense requires people to honestly buy into the idea that the FBI isn't in full possession of all this evidence already," agreed law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.
"I’m confused, I thought they were all BLM/ANTIFA/FBI," said national security lawyer Bradley Moss.
"If you’re blurring someone’s face to 'protect' them from criminal prosecution, then you are committing a crime in covering it up," said podcaster Scott Dworkin.
"News Flash: Prosecuting criminals is not 'retaliation,'" said former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.
"Speaker Mike confesses to tampering with evidence," said journalist Marcy Wheeler. "Seems obstructiony."
"The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States is trying to make it harder for the FBI to identify and arrest criminals who broke the law during the Capitol storming," said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League Center for Extremism.
"By blurring the faces of insurrectionists to protect them from justice, @SpeakerJohnson is providing them aid and comfort and is thus ineligible for the speakership or his seat in Congress," said political analyst Brian Beutler.
