An investigation is underway following the discovery that 117 encrypted files related to the January 6 riots were deleted by the now-disbanded House Select January 6 Committee.
The digital forensics team employed by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight made the discovery of the data deletion, which occurred on January 1, 2023, just before Republicans took the majority in January of the same year. The Committee, despite disbanding, managed to recover the password-protected files, shedding light on potential attempts to shield certain information from public scrutiny.
Representative Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a member of the subcommittee, confirmed the accuracy of the reports, stating, “Unfortunately, at this time, we cannot determine what was in the deleted files.” The incident has prompted concerns among lawmakers, with Representative Greg Murphy (R-NC) questioning the motives behind the deletion: “What are they trying to hide? Their whole plan was to ‘get to the truth of the matter’. They obviously didn’t want the real truth, just ‘their’ truth.”
Fox News Digital reported that Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) has written to former House January 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), requesting passwords to access the data demanding he provide answers and passwords for the data, which was deleted against House rules. Loudermilk pointed out discrepancies in the amount of data turned over, noting that Thompson had claimed to provide 4 terabytes of digital files, but the archived hard drives contained less than 3 terabytes.
The discrepancies included missing records, such as the identity of an individual whose testimony was not archived, specific transcribed interviews, and depositions sent to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security. Loudermilk’s follow-up letters to these entities emphasized the need for “unedited and unredacted transcripts” of testimonies.
Loudermilk demanded compliance with the requests by January 24 and requested a list of passwords for password-protected files. He questioned why the former January 6 Select Committee would prevent Americans from seeing all the evidence produced in their investigation if they had nothing to hide.
