” The war against truth“January 6th” is not the first documentary I have watched or reviewed, nor is it the first to feature my own video footage from that infamous day, but it is the first to feature many of the people I have come to know and become friends with, including the film’s producers and director.
I attended the premiere of this documentary at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas on May 17th. The packed theater was filled with tears. “The Truth is a powerful emotional impact.”
“War on Truth” is not a cover-up. It is not an apology for those who committed questionable or wrongdoings that day.
This documentary will be released in 2021 as aExecutionBoth films were featured in the award-winning 2007 documentary “Border. ” Nick SearcyThe producer and narrator of both films is FX’s hit series “Justification. ”
The next day, I had the honor of driving Searcy to a screening of the film at a private ranch two and a half hours east of Dallas. On the long drive, I learned more about the challenges that went into bringing this long-awaited documentary to the big screen.
Complicating matters is that the story of January 6th changed and is still changing so quickly. Rapid revelations, new evidence, and almost daily arrests make it hard to distinguish between the “good guys” and the “bad guys.” This makes it hard to tell a concise story. The original edit of the documentary was three and a half hours long, cut from more than seven hours of informative interview footage, and ultimately trimmed down to a final running time of two hours and five minutes.
Rather than focusing on the conspiracy-driven questions surrounding the events of that day, Burgard, Searcy and editor Tim Lawley chose to focus on the tragic stories of Americans whose lives were turned upside down by the Justice Department’s prosecution overreach. It was a wise decision, one that set “War Against the Truth” apart from most other January 6 documentaries and drew an emotional response from the premiere audience.
“The War on Truth” is not a cover-up. It is not an apology for those who committed questionable or wrongdoings that day. For three years, I have witnessed bad people do bad things, good people do good things, and good people make impulsive, stupid choices. It is an undeniable truth that the government has doubled down and overly broadly prosecuted those involved, regardless of their individual levels of responsibility. That is the theme of this film.
Searcy is a compelling storyteller. He’s unusual among Hollywood actors for not being “canceled” for his beliefs and political activism. Moreover, he was at the Capitol on January 6th but did not enter the building. He begins his story by saying that what he saw “didn’t look like a riot. It looked like a tailgate party.”
Of course, the actions of fewer than 300 violent criminals Tens of thousands The roughly 3,000 people who have been labeled variously as “insurrectionists” and “domestic terrorists” and who entered through the open, unguarded doors of the Capitol without any intention of “insurrection” or halting the certification of the 2020 election have incurred the greatest wrath from the Biden administration.
“War on Truth” profiles several low-level criminals who have lost their families, jobs, careers, businesses, had their lives ruined, and ended up in prison simply for being on the Capitol grounds that day, or doing their job as journalists. Some were randomly charged with felony obstruction, despite engaging in less serious or violent behavior than those who were only charged with misdemeanors.
The film focuses on individuals whose video evidence contradicts the government’s case, such as former Tennessee Deputy Sheriff Ronald Colton McAbee. Video footage shows McAbee helping a police officer who was being assaulted during a melee at the Capitol’s west tunnel entrance. He also made desperate attempts to save Roseanne Boyland, who was trampled and beaten during the melee. Boyland was one of four protesters who died that day. Federal prosecutors twisted McAbee’s heroism into a felony, leading to his conviction and 70-month prison sentence.
Among the people featured in “The Battle for Truth” are some well-known political activists. America’s Frontline DoctorsGold, who advocated for alternative therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic that have since been proven effective, was scheduled to speak on one of the legally permitted side stages on the Capitol grounds. She and her partner and bodyguard, John Strand, entered the Capitol for about 20 minutes as the protests turned violent.
Gold accepted a plea deal from the government and received a 60-day jail sentence because his actions were entirely nonviolent and nondestructive. Strand, on the other hand, refused to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit and was tried for the same crimes as Gold. Having rejected the government’s plea deal and ultimately been found guilty, Strand was sentenced to 32 months in prison.
The cases of Messrs. Gold and Strand hit particularly close to home because the judge who sentenced them, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, is the same judge who presided over my case.
Another worrying story that hits all too close to home is that of Jesus “JD” Rivera, a Florida-based videographer and professional photojournalist who was contracted by a television news affiliate in Mobile, Alabama to cover the events that took place in Washington DC on January 6th.
In truth, the whole truth about January 6th will likely remain unknown for quite some time, possibly in our lifetimes.
Rivera’s only crime that day was “following the story.” Eventually, the story led him inside the Capitol, following in essentially the same footsteps as The New Yorker’s Luke Mogelson. Rivera entered the building with expensive, bulky, professional camera equipment; Mogelson documented his time inside with his cell phone.
In one of the film’s most moving scenes, Searcy and his camera crew followed Rivera and his wife to a Georgia federal prison on the day he began serving his eight-month sentence. Rivera committed no acts of violence, chanted, marched, or picketed. As a professional journalist, he behaved exactly like Mogelson and the approximately 60 other journalists who entered the “restricted” Capitol building and were not indicted. And yet, Rivera spent the first two months of his sentence in solitary confinement at the federal facility, and was the only defendant charged with a misdemeanor.
But the film’s most moving scene, and the one that likely resonated most with Dallas audiences, was the heartbreaking interview between Searcy and Victoria White.
Exculpatory video and audio evidence clearly shows that White intervened with violent provocateurs who were attempting to break windows on the west side of the Capitol. She can be heard yelling, “I won’t do that! I won’t do that!” Unfortunately, she likely made the mistake of joining the crowd pushing through the West Tunnel, believing it to be an access to higher terraces on the west side of the Capitol.
White is then caught in the wave of people pushing into the tunnel and can be seen on video trying to escape the crowd. Unable to move, she can only hold on desperately to avoid being crushed. She is eventually forced into the tunnel, where officers can be seen on video spraying her with a chemical agent at close range. She is struck in the head more than 30 times by DC Metropolitan Police Department officers with a metal baton.
White, in a state of shock and semi-consciousness, was dragged by police into the Capitol building and arrested. White did not commit any acts of violence or property damage. Having suffered extreme mental and physical trauma, White ultimately pleaded guilty to “obstructing a police officer during a civil unrest” and was sentenced to 10 days in jail.
“The War on Truth” also features expert testimony from FBI whistleblowers Kyle Serafin and Steve Friend, intelligence expert J. Michael Waller, and journalists Taylor Hansen and Julie Kelly. Searcy and Burgard told me they had to cut at least eight storylines for time reasons, some of which may ultimately be released as shorter featurettes on the film’s website or DVD release.
The scenes I worked on were shot over a year ago, including the scene of the shooting of Ashli Babbitt. Given what I’ve personally experienced since December, and since my interview with Burgard, I wish I could have provided a bit more up-to-date information. But I’m not complaining. January 6th and its aftermath are still an evolving story, and “The Battle for Truth,” while unfinished, needed to see the light of day.
The truth is, we probably won’t know the whole truth of what happened that day and why for a long time, probably not in our lifetimes. But what we do know, and what “War on the Truth” illustrates so well, is that too many well-meaning Americans have fallen into the traps of an establishment storyline designed to stigmatize half the country as right-wing extremists and silence them. It’s a lie. We need more documentaries like “War on the Truth” to counter that lie.
“The war against truth” is currently streaming on the film’s website. The filmmakers released the film on January 6th.Execution‘ is available to watch for free on Rumble.
