New Capitol video shows fierce attacks
Videos released under court order provide a chilling new look at the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including body camera footage that shows a man charging at a police officer with a flagpole and tackling him to the ground.
Judges ordered the release of the videos after media organizations went to court to request that the Department of Justice provide access. The videos are being presented as evidence in cases against three men charged with assaulting police.
The new videos show a Marine veteran and former New York City police officer wielding a flagpole as he attacks police, as well as rioters crushing an officer into a door as he screams in pain. Still another video shows a man punching an officer in the head.
The release comes at a time when Republican lawmakers in Washington increasingly try to downplay the siege, portraying the breach of the Capitol as a mostly peaceful protest.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump fought past police lines to storm the building and interrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s election win.
The Justice Department has brought hundreds of criminal cases against the rioters.
Body camera video released in the case against former New York City policeman Thomas Webster shows him holding a flagpole and shouting profanities at officers standing behind a metal barricade. Webster pushes the barricade and swings toward an officer with the flagpole. There’s a violent scuffle, the officer manages to take the flagpole away, and Webster appears to tackle the officer to the ground.
Other images show Webster pinning the officer to the ground and grabbing at his face.
Webster’s lawyer wrote in seeking his release from jail while he awaits trial that his client got upset when he saw police using pepper spray on the crowd. The lawyer, James Monroe, wrote that ìWebster never actually struck the officer with the flagpole.
Other footage released in the case against Patrick McCaughey III, a Connecticut man charged with assault, show police wearing helmets and face shields gathered in a Capitol doorway as the crowd pushes aggressively forward and shouts at them.
At one point, Daniel Hodges of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department gets pinned against a door and a rioter rips off his mask. The mob shouts “heave ho” as it pushes forward. Hodges, whose mouth appears bloody, cries out as he’s crushed between a riot shield and the door.
Democrats used the video of Hodges, which had been previously obtained by some media outlets, in their impeachment case against Trump accusing him of inciting the insurrection. The Senate acquitted him weeks later.
Footage released in a third case shows a man identified as Scott Fairlamb and others yelling at police as the officers walk through the crowd outside the Capitol. Fairlamb then shoves an officer and punches at his head, hitting his face shield.
Court documents filed this week also show another man, Guy Reffitt of Texas, has been indicted on new charges that he brought a rifle and handgun to Washington and carried the handgun onto Capitol grounds.