(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department released over 1,000 hours of body-worn camera footage in 1,630 videos from the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol event. The videos were released because of an April 2026 court ruling in a DC Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. The videos are available via the Judicial Watch website here and http://www.judicialwatch.org/january6bodycam.
Judicial Watch filed the DC FOIA lawsuit in June 2024 after the DC Police denied an August 2021 request for all body-worn camera footage recorded by police officers responding to the January 6, 2021, events at and around the U.S. Capitol (Judicial Watch v. District of Columbia (No. 2024-CAB-003453)).
Earlier this year, a local DC court dealt a major blow to government secrecy by ruling that the DC Police could not broadly blur and censor the footage. Rejecting DC Police’s claim that it could withhold faces and voices of everyone except law enforcement—and its assertion that producing the footage would cost more than $1.5 million—the court held that any privacy interests were minimal and outweighed by the overwhelming public interest in disclosure. The ruling cleared the way for this release of bodycam footage that documents one of the most consequential events in recent American history.
“The release of these previously secret DC Police January 6 bodycam videos are the result of a hard-fought victory for transparency by Judicial Watch,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch encourages citizens, law enforcement, Congress and media to carefully review these videos so they can see more of the truth about January 6.”
Judicial Watch has conducted a massive, independent investigation into the events of January 6.
In April 2026, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to obtain records related to possible improper targeting of January 6, 2021, Capitol protesters, their supporters, and related nonprofits
In August 2025, Judicial Watch announced that the U.S. Air Force would finally provide full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was shot and killed inside the U.S. Capitol by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on January 6, 2021. Babbitt was the only official January 6 homicide victim. The Biden administration had previously denied Babbitt and her family these honors in retaliation for being at the U.S. Capitol that day. This decision came on the heels of a massive, nearly $5 million Trump administration settlement to her family for wrongful death and other claims against the U.S. Government.
In July 2025, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of Justice for records on accelerated January 6 prosecutions after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2024. The Biden administration, anticipating President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to issue pardons for January 6, 2021, defendants, is believed to have accelerated prosecutions in the final months of Biden’s term.
In March 2024, Judicial Watch received Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) records from the Department of Justice in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that show the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deployed personnel to Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.
October 2023, Judicial Watch received the declaration of James W. Joyce, senior counsel in the Office of the General Counsel for the Capitol Police, in which he describes emails among senior officials of the United States Capitol Police (USCP) in January 2021 that show warnings of possible January 6 protests that could lead to serious disruptions at the U.S. Capitol.
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