Trump applauds Mike Johnson for releasing January 6th footage

Former President Donald Trump on Friday applauded House Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to release most of the Capitol Hill security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, to the public.

"Congratulations to Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson for having the Courage and Fortitude to release all of the J6 Tapes, which will explicitly reveal what really happened on January 6th!" Trump posted on Truth Social, along with a link to the House Administration Committee website hosting the video files.

Johnson announced the same day that he would make more than 40,000 hours of footage available online, exempting only a fraction of the materials that may include sensitive security information.

"When I ran for Speaker, I promised to make accessible to the American people the 44,000 hours of video from Capitol Hill security taken on January 6, 2021," he said. "Today, we will begin immediately posting video on a public website and move as quickly as possible to add to the website nearly all of the footage, more than 40,000 hours."

As of press time, the website features only a small portion of what is expected to be a vast trove of footage. Johnson further announced the establishment of a public viewing room while the footage is uploaded.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made some of the footage available to journalists, such as former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, but did not directly release materials to the general public.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.