WASHINGTON ― House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republicans are blurring faces in security footage from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to protect rioters from prosecution.

“We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,” Johnson said at a press conference.

The Department of Justice has long had access to the footage and has used it in some of the roughly 1,200 criminal cases against people linked to the riot, which saw participants fight police and storm the Capitol building.

Johnson’s comment is a remarkable statement of sympathy for supporters of then-President Donald Trump who illegally entered a restricted federal building as part of a violent attack on Congress.

Though prosecutors already have the video, blurring people’s faces could prevent amateur investigators from sending tips to the FBI. Online sleuths have previously used social media and facial recognition software to help the government track down a number of suspects.

Shortly after becoming speaker in October, Johnson announced that Republicans would release thousands of hours of footage from security cameras, fulfilling a pledge he made to the far-right flank of the House GOP conference. The video has previously been available to criminal defendants and reporters by request.

Johnson initially said that the footage would allow people to see for themselves what happened that day so that the public would not have “to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials” ― as though Trump supporters had not really ransacked the building as part of an effort to undo his loss in the 2020 election.

Conspiracy theorists and some Republican lawmakers have pointed to video snippets as evidence that it was actually the Justice Department that orchestrated the riot. Several lawmakers claimed that video showed a Trump supporter flashing a badge at Capitol Police officers, for instance. The object in the man’s hand turned out to have been a vaping device.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who claimed from the House floor on the day of the attack that it had actually been perpetrated by leftists in disguise, led the push for releasing the footage.