Are you familiar with the Sedition Hunters?

Sedition Hunters is a global community of open-source intelligence investigators (OSINT) working together to assist the U.S. FBI and Washington D.C. Capitol Police in finding people who allegedly committed crimes in the January 6 capitol riots.

We examine thousands of hours of videos and hundreds of images searching for individuals who committed crimes on Jan 6, 2021 at the United States Capitol. As we look for those wanted by the FBI we are able to identify other crimes and pass that information along to law enforcement officers.

There’s a new book out, Sedition Hunters: How January 6 Broke the Justice System, by NBC News justice reporter Ryan J Reilly that details this citizen group’s accomplishments. Part of the point of the book, as Reilly explains, is that the Sedition Hunters were better and faster than the FBI at identifying people at the January 6 insurrection, and the FBI eventually realized that they needed to partner with them.

That’s remarkable in part because the Sedition Hunters had to rely on open source materials. We’re talking mainly about stuff that is on the internet. They had some tools, like facial recognition software, but they didn’t have access to all the video from Capitol Hill security cameras. They didn’t have access to other surveillance tools used by the FBI that might tracks cars or movement through the DC transit system. They didn’t have subpoena power or search warrants that would reveal hotel guest lists, etc. And, yet, they still put the FBI to shame in identifying January 6 rioters.

On November 17, new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson announced that he was authorizing the public release of 40,000 hours of January 6 Capitol security footage, arguing that this 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.” The New York Times had a different explanation, arguing that Johnson was trying “to allay the anger of hard-line Republican lawmakers” who didn’t like him “working with Democrats to keep the government funded.” No sooner than the first footage was uploaded, the far right began making up conspiracy theories.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to publicly release thousands of hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6, 2021, has fueled a renewed effort by Republican lawmakers and far-right activists to rewrite the history of the attack that day and exonerate the pro-Trump rioters who took part.

Little noticed on November 17, Johnson also announced they would blur the faces of private citizens to “avoid any persons from being targeted for retaliation.” In other words, they understood that releasing 40,000 hours of raw footage of the January 6 attacks would be a boon to the Sedition Hunters.

When he repeated the need to blur faces during a December 5 press conference, it seemed to catch everyone’s attention.

It’s really nothing new, however. The House Republicans are effectively insurrectionists, so they see the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6 as barely distinct from themselves. They don’t want to help put more of them in prison. Their desire is to use the footage to push crazed and exculpatory conspiracy theories that can rival or replace the official record. Never mind that they were directly attacked by this mob on January 6 and the Capitol police who defended them suffered terrible injuries and even related deaths.

So, of course they will blur faces. But my money is still on the Sedition Hunters using this footage to nab more bad guys.