Reporter explains why there’s so much white space in Jan. 6 transcripts – and what it might have to do with the DOJ
When reviewing the transcripts of the interviews conducted by the House Select Committee looking into the attack on Congress on January 6, Lisa Rubin, the legal expert for Rachel Maddow, explained that you might notice enormous blocks of white space. There are several causes for this.
Rubin is focusing on what isn’t shown while most others are reading the transcripts’ text.
Anyone who has read the transcripts has seen that, for instance, staff people are conducting part of the questioning or discussing matters that could implicate a witness as having medical privacy, she said. In the transcript, words have block boxes with an X through them. However, a few of the transcripts also contain pauses that are simply unfilled white spaces that last for an entire page and a half or longer.
She urged the committee to clarify what was being withheld in those places.
Rubin added, “They might not be able to tell us why.” But there’s a chance that the testimony in those white spaces relates directly to the Justice Department’s inquiry, and that before it was made public, the DOJ placed those spaces there to protect its ongoing investigation.
