November 20, 2023

We all knew this would happen after GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson decided to release over 40,000 hours of security footage from the January 6th insurrection:

A Republican-led House committee on Friday began posting internal video from the Jan. 6 riot to a public website, with House Speaker Mike Johnson vowing to make the footage "available to all Americans."

“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," Johnson, R-La., said in a statement. [...]

The panel began by posting 90 hours of security video that had already been released to media outlets.

Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, blasted Friday's release of the footage.

“It is unconscionable that one of Speaker Johnson’s first official acts as steward of the institution is to endanger his colleagues, staff, visitors, and our country by allowing virtually unfettered access to sensitive Capitol security footage," Morelle said in a statement. "That he is doing so over the strenuous objections of the security professionals within the Capitol Police is outrageous."

Which of course has resulted in people like Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, who was up to his eyeballs already in the attempt to overthrow our election, pushing an already debunked conspiracy on Twitter:

As expected, new conspiracies are being launched based on the J6 footage released by Speaker Mike Johnson, each one crazier than the next.

The hottest one making the rounds claims that someone in a MAGA hat is flashing a police badge inside the Capitol. This feeds the conspiracy that J6 was orchestrated by FBI agents dressed as Trump supporters, advanced by several Members of Congress. [...]

The new conspiracy, latched onto this morning by Utah Senator Mike Lee and several others, is that one of the J6ers inside the Capitol must be holding an FBI badge because, I guess, it supposedly looks like a badge. Of course, since they have been unable to prove the "fedsurrection" conspiracy for two years now with actual evidence, so they are desperate to find anything.

twitter-lee-j6

As the article discussed, there's just one problem with this. The man's name is Kevin Lyons, and we already know who he is because he's serving a four year sentence in prison:

A Jefferson Park man who stole one of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's favorite photos off the wall of her Capitol Hill office during the D.C. riot of January 6th, 2021, is going to prison.

Kevin Lyons committed menacing conduct according to authorities. Lyons is a 40-year-old father from Chicago and also a self-professed idiot. That's how he described himself in federal court Friday for, among other things, swiping Pelosi's prized photo, a picture of Pelosi with iconic civil rights Congressman John Lewis. While heading back to Chicago, Lyons posted a picture of himself and the stolen treasure, which has never been found.

Lyons was sentenced to four years and three months for what he admits was idiocy and stupidity on January 6th.

The Chicago man was part of a riotous mob on Capitol Hill according to prosecutors. They say he maintained a glib tone in the face of destruction, chaos, and violence by joking about the takeover, toppled security fences, shattered windows, broken doors, and overrun police officers.

Apparently that hasn't fazed Lee, because as of this writing, he hasn't deleted his tweet despite being fact checked there as well.

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