By Cullen McCue – Trending Political News
U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) told Just The News that the January 6 Select Committee did not preserve key evidence as part of its “investigation” into former President Donald Trump and the January 6 Capitol protests. This includes taped depositions, many of which have been used in court cases and referenced in sentencing for January 6 prisoners.
One of the most notable depositions was that of former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who told a bizarre story about Trump attempting to “grab the steering wheel” of a vehicle while the protests were unfolding. This account has been refuted by Secret Service agents.
On Friday, Just The News host John Solomon asked Rep. Loudermilk if the deposition tapes, including that of Cassidy Hutchinson, have indeed been deleted.
“That is true. I can confirm that. And all of the videotapes of all depositions are gone. Again, we found out about this early in the investigation when I received a call from someone who was looking for some information off one of the videotapes and we started searching and we had none,” Loudermilk said.
The Georgia lawmaker explained that he asked Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who chaired the January 6 committee, if he could view the tapes. Thompson wrote back stating that the tapes were not preserved, adding that the committee felt they didn’t have to.
“He didn’t feel that they had to, but according to House rules, you have to preserve any data and information and documents that are used in an official proceeding, which they did. They actually aired portions of these tapes on their televised hearings, which means they had to keep those, but yet he chose not to,” Loudermilk said.
Loudermilk does believe that the tapes exist somewhere and stressed that recovering them is a top priority. “Even with Cassidy Hutchinson, people have asked why do you need the videos? You’ve got written transcripts. Well, when you’ve got someone like Cassidy, who is significantly changing her testimony, I want to see what her body language is when she gave her original testimony. I want to see what her voice inflection is,” he said.
“Was she very confident in what she was saying at that time, but then later decided to change it? This is why it’s so important that we have those videotapes, and I believe that’s probably why we don’t have them.”
Anyone convicted should appeal. Anyone who took a plea gets their suicidal bargain.