Republicans on the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee have reportedly recovered over 100 encrypted files that were deleted by the Democratic-led House Jan. 6 Select Committee just days before the GOP took the majority. This report was published by Just The News on January 22, 2024.
Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the Chair of the Oversight Subcommittee, sent a letter to former Select Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., demanding explanations and passwords for the deleted data. According to House rules, these files should not have been deleted.
The Oversight Subcommittee, tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the actions of the former select committee, expected to receive four terabytes of archived data from the select committee when the Republicans assumed majority control in January 2023. However, they only received less than three terabytes.
A digital forensics team hired by the subcommittee discovered 117 files encrypted and deleted on January 1, 2023, two days before the Republican majority was sworn in. The team’s report indicated that most of the recovered files are password-protected, obscuring their contents.
Loudermilk stated that Bennie Thompson had previously acknowledged that not all Committee records were archived as required by House rules. He also mentioned that specific transcribed interviews and depositions were sent to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security but were not archived with the Clerk of the House.
Loudermilk is now demanding a list of passwords for all select committee files and has written to the White House and Homeland Security Department requesting unedited and unredacted transcripts of testimony from their officials before the former select committee.
The report highlights the controversy surrounding the handling of documents and data by the Jan. 6 Select Committee and raises questions about transparency and adherence to procedural norms.
For more details, you can read the full article on Just The News: Republicans recover over 100 files deleted by Jan. 6 committee days before GOP took majority: Report.
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