Nearly eight weeks after telling the Department of Justice he was not impressed by its arguments to keep a court seal on undercover police video from Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that the protective order keeping the video from public view will remain in place.
The apparent change of heart by Contreras stifles the request by Jan. 6 defendant William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, to remove the “highly sensitive” designation on video shot by the Metropolitan Police Department that shows undercover officers—including one who incited the crowd to go up the northwest steps to the Capitol.
The judge’s ruling denies Pope’s request to unseal and release to the public seven video files related to the undercover MPD officers.
Pope noted the intense public and media interest in the video as a factor that weighs in favor of release. A coalition of major media outlets asked to intervene in the case and filed a motion in support of Pope’s efforts to unseal the videos.
“He’s been pretty open to releasing the undercover MPD video,” Pope told The Epoch Times on March 3. “And he wasn’t impressed with the government’s arguments. So things are trending in the right direction on both motions right now.”
Two undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers walk behind Ashli Babbitt on the northwest side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. One had earlier remarked “someone would get shot.” (William Pope via U.S. District Court/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)In his April 26 ruling, however, Contreras said he had to consider the safety of witnesses in the case, the danger of perjury or witness intimidation, and the need to protect national security.
“While the court acknowledges that the protective order’s restrictions may pose some inconvenience to defendant,” the judge wrote, “it finds that they are based on good cause and do not violate defendant’s right to conduct his defense.”
Contreras’ ruling prevents Pope from accessing Capitol security video or other footage labeled by the government as “highly sensitive,” unless he is supervised by an attorney. Pope is defending himself in the criminal case. He told the judge he needs full access to all evidence materials in his case in order to craft his defense.
Contreras wrote that “good cause exists for the protective order’s requirement that defendant have supervised, view-only access to highly sensitive CCTV footage.”
Pope said he will continue efforts to unseal the video and gain better access to case evidence.
“Obviously, I wish he would have ruled the other way,” Pope told The Epoch Times. “But there are still legal avenues I can pursue, and I will be pursuing them.”
Some of the biggest Jan. 6 revelations to date came from Pope’s case filings, including the three MPD undercover officers embedded in the crowds.
Pope’s Feb. 21 motion described how one of the officers acted as a provocateur, inciting people to climb over a barrier and traverse the northwest steps to the Capitol.
A leaked 7-minute segment of the MPD video was posted on Rumble on March 24.
In a motion arguing against release of the video, the U.S. Justice Department admitted the officers engaged in provocateur behavior.
Two members of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Electronic Surveillance Unit approach the northwest side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)“The specific footage, GoPro video recorded by an MPD police officer who was stationed at the Capitol in an evidence-gathering capacity, captures the officer shouting words to the effect of, “Go! Go! Go!” wrote prosecutor Kelly Moran.
“At other times in these videos, the officer and the two other plainclothes officers with him appear to join the crowd around them in various chants, including “drain the swamp,” “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”, and “Whose house? Our house!”
The video shows someone leaned part of a bicycle rack against the balustrade at the bottom of the northwest steps. As a protester climbed up the makeshift ladder, “Officer 1” shouted: “C’mon, man, let’s go! Leave that [expletive].”
Officer 1 got help from a protester climbing onto the balustrade. Then, surveying the people moving up the staircase, he shouted, “C’mon, go, go, go!”
Another video that Pope discovered in his research shows Officer 2 and Officer 3 walking behind Ashli Babbitt on the northwest steps. Officer 2 earlier said he believed someone would get shot that day. Babbitt was shot at the entry of the Speaker’s Lobby by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd. She died a half-hour later.