Trump commends Johnson for ‘having the courage’ to release Jan. 6 tapes publicly

Former President Trump praised Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Friday, after Republicans began to release footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol.

The tapes, shared by the Committee on House Administration, show the Capitol premises during the insurrection. So far, roughly 90 hours of the 44,000 hours of footage have been made public, but the full collection is expected to be released by Monday.

“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 wrote in a Friday Truth Social post.

The House committee that released the tapes initially announced its intent to do so in September.

“This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials,” Johnson said in his announcement.

Faces of private citizens were blurred, and about 5 percent of the footage will be redacted for building security concerns, the Speaker added.

The tapes come nearly three years after the riot. Several Republican lawmakers have pushed for the footage to be made public in the years since, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — a staunch ally of the former president.

“We need to release the J6 tapes to a public on line source so that everyone knows what did and didn’t happen, we need to restore fair justice, and America can move on,” Greene said earlier this year.

The news also comes after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made headlines in February when he granted access to some of the tapes to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, after prompting speculation about how and when he would release the footage.