Republicans Recovered More Than 100 Encrypted Jan. 6 Files, but There's a Catch

In the days before Republicans took control of the House last year, Democrats deleted more than 100 encrypted files relating to the investigation of the Jan 6 events which, as we now know, were four parts peaceful protest, one part riot, and two parts FBI-sponsored Capitol Hill tourism.

The House Administration Committee's Oversight Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), was supposed to receive about four terabytes of data from the outgoing Democrats but was given only about half that much. All in all, 117 files were deleted, according to a House digital forensics examination seen by Fox News.

To give you an idea of how much data that is, two terabytes of hard drive space can store about 500 feature-length movies in 1080p high definition with 5.1 multichannel sound.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) chaired the subcommittee when Democrats held the House before January 2023 and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was still Speaker. Thompson was required to turn over all documents relating to the Democrats' Jan 6 investigation but, according to a letter sent to him by Loudermilk, Thompson "claimed to have 'turned over 4-terabytes of digital files,' but the hard drives archived by the Select Committee with the Clerk of the House contain less than 3-terabytes of data."

Sources told Fox that the files were deleted on Jan. 1 of last year, "just days before Thompson’s team was required to transfer the data to the new committee."

All 117 files were recovered by the forensics team, but there's a catch.

Before being deleted, all 117 files were encrypted and require a password Republicans don't have before their contents can be seen.

"It’s obvious they went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation. It also appears that Bennie Thompson and [Rep.] Liz Cheney [RINO-Wyo.] intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules," Loudermilk also said.

Here's more from Loudermilk's letter as seen and reported by Fox:

As you acknowledged in your July 7, 2023 letter, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Select Committee) did not archive all Committee records as required by House Rules... You wrote that you sent specific transcribed interviews and depositions to the White House and Department of Homeland Security but did not archive them with the Clerk of the House.

This might be an excellent time for GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to start playing hardball to get those passwords. Republicans rallied to expel one of their own last year — New York Rep. George Santos — for far less serious offenses than these. Can they rally that spirit against their actual political opponents, the Democrats?

Or are House Republicans only tough against weak opponents?

As originally constituted under Pelosi's speakership, the House Jan 6 committee consisted of nine congresscritters handpicked by Pelosi, herself. There were seven Democrats and two pseudo-Republicans — Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois there to act as "bipartisan" beards over the rigged proceedings.

At the time, Pelosi said that Kinzinger "brings great patriotism to the committee’s mission: to find the facts and protect our democracy." Finding those facts is going to be a difficult chore for Loudermilk and other members of the Oversight Subcommittee, now that half of them — two terabytes' worth — is under the Democrats' digital lock and key. 

Recommended: Here Comes the Houthi War (and How Biden Will Screw It Up)