In a landmark triumph for transparency, a federal judge granted a motion on April 9, 2025, to lift a protective order in the January 6-related US v Ryan Zink case, unlocking a trove of previously suppressed evidence tied to the Capitol protest. Led by the Roots Justice Law Firm and unopposed by the government, this ruling—ordered by the chief judge, Hon. Jeb Boasberg, delivers a victory that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and the GOP-controlled Congress failed to achieve despite campaign promises to release all January 6 materials to the public.
Roger Roots, the attorney behind this legal breakthrough, expressed astonishment and pride in a recorded conversation just 15 minutes after the decision.
“We achieved something that Mike Johnson and the Republican Congress never achieved.
Roger Roots, attorney at law, Roots Justice
They promised justice, took control of the House, and then sat on their hands for months.
Yet here we are—everything is now public.”
Roots, whose firm filed the motion with a certificate of service dated March 22, 2025, outshone elected officials who faltered on their pledges.
The motion’s success rests on a compelling mix of constitutional arguments, legal precedents, and the unique political context of January 6 cases. Roots framed public access to the evidence as vital for justice, accountability, and restoring trust in the judicial system—a position that persuaded the court and highlighted the inaction of figures like Johnson.
What’s Being Released—and How Will It Reach the Public?
The order exposes “all the global discovery” linked to January 6, including body camera footage from law enforcement, Capitol security recordings, investigative documents like “30-2s,” and the full Relativity database. “All that stuff hidden from the public is now available,” Roots said. “This is fucking huge.” Having seen portions of this material in his legal work, he emphasized its transformative potential.
Yet the path to public access remains unclear. “I believe the public should have the passwords to Relativity,” Roots argued, envisioning a public website like Evidence.com for direct access. For now, no such platform exists. Attorneys with prior access can share freely—“We could give you anything you want,” Roots noted—but broader availability awaits further action. Sensitive data, including FBI agents’ phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and addresses, will require redactions, which could delay the process. “They’ll have to redact everything first, right?” Roots speculated, referencing the decades-long release of Kennedy assassination files.
