Capitol Police say a Jan. 6 defendant’s demands could expose secret security features

Gallagher’s submitting accompanied a Justice Department transient opposing a request by Jan. 6 defendant Daniel Egtvedt to permit his attorneys to measure and {photograph} nonpublic areas of the Capitol. Many Jan. 6 defendants have been supplied Capitol Police-led excursions as a part of efforts to construct their defenses. The division provided 10 such excursions during the last yr.

But Gallagher mentioned providing a higher stage of entry to Egtvedt would threat revealing “many secret and highly sensitive security features embedded in the physical structure of the U.S. Capitol.”

“Some existed on January 6th and some are new, having needed to be changed after January 6 because the USCP must continue to protect the U.S. Capitol (and those who work there, including Members of Congress) and address future operational security vulnerabilities,” he mentioned.

Egtvedt is accused of breaching the constructing after which assaulting Capitol Police officers who tried to get him to go away the constructing. Prosecutors say Egtvedt entered the Capitol after he had already been sprayed with some type of chemical irritant after which milled round with the group earlier than his confrontation with officers.

In his submitting, Gallagher famous that the Capitol Police had supplied all 7,000 hours of related surveillance footage to every of the greater than 840 Jan. 6 defendants. And whereas the division had initially sought intensive protections on that footage, which it considers extraordinarily delicate, Gallagher famous that courts had eliminated a few of the restrictions.

“However, the USCP continues to consider any interior footage of the U.S. Capitol to be highly sensitive information, and that access to it should be strictly limited,” he wrote.

“There are additional security features in the doors, windows, and within the U.S. Capitol that are extremely sensitive and cannot be discussed in this document,” he added.

Gallagher and prosecutors additionally apprehensive that in the event that they granted Egtvedt particular entry to measure and {photograph} private areas of the Capitol, they’d obtain lots of of requests from different defendants to do the identical. Gallagher described it as (*6*)