Mike Lindell says he will sue McCarthy for sharing Jan. 6 footage only with Tucker Carlson

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell says he plans to sue Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for providing Fox News host Tucker Carlson with exclusive access to footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Lindell told Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast on Thursday that his streaming platform Lindell-TV plans to sue McCarthy, claiming the Speaker violated the First Amendment’s freedom of the press provision and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

The Trump ally said Lindell-TV is “injured by not having access” to the tapes and that the Speaker’s decision represented discrimination. 

“We’re not gonna sit back and let that happen,” Lindell told Bannon, former White House chief strategist. “Why does just Fox get this? So they can cover it up even more? It’s disgusting. All of us, including War Room, we all need to see what’s on those tapes, and we need to see all of them.”

The Justice Department and the now-defunct House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack both previously expressed an interest in obtaining information from Lindell, who was a key proponent of false claims that voting machines had been manipulated in the 2020 election.

McCarthy’s office granted Carlson access to about 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage around the time of the Jan. 6 riot, a Fox News spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Monday.

Democrats have slammed the decision as a potential security threat for the Capitol.

“The apparent transfer of video footage represents an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol Police, who valiantly defended our democracy with their lives at risk on that fateful day,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused McCarthy of “needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11.”

“The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected and its public release would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch and allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded,” Schumer added.

McCarthy has defended his decision, saying he previously pledged to release the footage.

“I promised,” McCarthy told The New York Times on Wednesday. “I was asked in the press about these tapes, and I said they do belong to the American public. I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment.”