Judicial Watch: Federal Court Hearing Set for DC Police Bodycam Footage from January 6, 2021

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that a hearing is set for Thursday, January 8, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. ET before D.C. Superior Court Judge Carl E. Ross in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the District of Columbia for local police bodycam footage from January 6, 2021.

Judicial Watch filed the June 2024 FOIA lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) denied Judicial Watch’s August 2021 request (Judicial Watch v. District of Columbia (No. 2024-CAB-003453)). Judicial Watch seeks all footage captured by the body-worn cameras of police department officers who responded to the Capitol on January 6.

The Metropolitan Police Department continues to withhold the January 6 footage because it claims that the faces and voices of every individual who is not law enforcement personnel in the videos for personal privacy reasons. Because of this, the police department seeks to seeks to charge Judicial Watch, a nonprofit, over $1.5 million so that the police department can redact those faces and voices in the videos, which supposedly contain over one thousand hours of footage.

In a September 2025 filing, Judicial Watch argues that DC’s claim of FOIA’s personal privacy redaction requirement is wrong because no privacy interest exists – and even if it did exist any privacy interest is outweighed by the public’s interest in this case:

[Metropolitan Police Department’s bodycam] footage from January 6, 2021 captured a public event on public property. The footage does not reveal private financial information, hospital admission records, social security numbers, medical records or similar materials. The [bodycam] footage only consists of faces and voices that were seen and/or heard by anyone present on public property or has seen other images/videos captured that day. There is nothing whatsoever private about the faces and voices….

If the Court were to find that more than a de minimis privacy interest is implicated by the unredacted disclosure of the [bodycam] footage, the obvious public interest outweighs it…. [L]ike the release of footage from the Capitol surveillance cameras, the release of [the police department’s bodycam] footage “will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials.” @SpeakerJohnson, X.com (Nov. 17, 2023, 16:33 ET), https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1725628274657706198 . 

“There is no good reason to hide these videos from January 6,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Therefore, Judicial Watch continues its fight five years later for the public’s right to see the unedited footage.”

Judicial Watch has extensively investigated the events of January 6.

 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 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.

Also in August, a Georgia state court issued an order in a Judicial Watch lawsuit for Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis to provide new information and potentially conduct a new search for Trump-related records because her affidavit to the court made no reference to whether any searches of the devices of former Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade or those of Chief Investigator Michael L. Hill, who was involved gathering evidence and coordinating investigative efforts, and likely met with the January 6 Committee. 

In May 2025, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of War for records regarding a reported 2021 meeting between then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley during which they discussed President Trump. During the meeting, Milley is alleged to have pressured Garland to target “far-right” militia movements (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:25-cv-01330)).

In April 2025, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service to obtain records related to possible improper targeting of January 6, 2021, Capitol protesters, their supporters, and related nonprofits (Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:25-cv-01290)).

In February 2025, Judicial Watch sued the War Department for information about two conference calls involving then-Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley with the Departments of Justice, Interior and Homeland Security regarding coordination for the January 6, 2021, election certification (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:25-cv-00439)).

In December 2024, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for details of a reported meeting between Attorney General Merrick Garland and. Milley in which they discussed President Trump and during which General Milley pressured Garland to target American “far right” militia movements (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-03380)).

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The post Judicial Watch: Federal Court Hearing Set for DC Police Bodycam Footage from January 6, 2021 appeared first on Judicial Watch.

Source: https://www.judicialwatch.org/dc-police-bodycam-footage-j6/