Speaker vows to release the J6 tapes, but what does that process actually look like?

It’s about time the public hears the truth about what happened on January 6, 2021, and according to House Speaker Mike Johnson, that time is nearing.

Investigative journalist Steve Baker, who has seen and analyzed the tapes himself, joins Steve Deace to explain how this process will likely play out.

“How much footage is the speaker vowing to release, and under what kind of a timetable are we talking about here?” Deace inquires.

“He's talking about releasing about 95% of [the footage],” says Baker. “Now what's the other 5%, and what makes that nefarious? Nothing – it's the secure areas of the Capitol,” such as the hidden staircases, doors, and passageways where “members under threat of an emergency would … escape.”

As for the timeline, Baker says that “there's a lot of misconceptions “ about an “early release” floating around.

As of last Friday, “only 90 hours” of footage were posted on the House Administration Committee's website, and the reason for that is because “that is the 90 hours that have already been cleared by security review.”

As for the rest of the 40,000 hours of footage, it will be a “monumental task on behalf of these congressional staffers and aides,” says Baker.

According to one senior aide Baker spoke to, “they're thinking about hiring a company to come in and handle this for them.”

“So this is going to take many months for the speaker's promise to release this to the public to finally be fulfilled.”

“How confident are you that they're going to follow through with this to the end?” asks Deace.

“I am confident because, as you know, I've had direct communications with Speaker Johnson” and other “congressional contacts,” says Baker, “and we know that this is going to happen.”

To hear their full conversation, watch the clip below.

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