Feds Spending $6.1M on Database of Jan. 6 Evidence

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The Department of Justice has agreed to pay a technology contractor $6.1 million to create a massive database of evidence related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Politico reported Friday.

The database will house videos, photographs, documents, and social media posts to be turned over to defense attorneys for the more than 500 people facing criminal charges connected to the assault, according to a court filing and government records.

Politico reported the award to Deloitte Financial Advisory Services could grow to nearly $26 million.

Deloitte, a firm prosecutors called "a litigation support vendor with extensive experience providing complex litigation technology services," will create the database.

Thursday's court filing said prosecutors are trying to organize:

• Thousands of hours of body-worn camera footage.
• Closed-circuit surveillance camera footage.
• More than a million social media videos.
• Data from phones and email accounts.
• Responses to more than 6,000 grand jury subpoenas.

"Following the Capitol Breach, the United States recognized that due to the nature and volume of materials being collected, the government would require the use of an outside contractor who could provide litigation technology support services to include highly technical and specialized data and document processing and review capabilities," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nadia Moore and William Dreher wrote in their submission.

"The government is working to provide an unprecedented amount of materials in the most comprehensive and usable format to defense counsel."

Deloitte was awarded a $6.1 million delivery order to provide "automated litigation support services" beginning on June 1 of this year to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., according to a government contracting database.

The Deloitte order was included in a broader department-wide contract issued last year to five companies. The broader contract is scheduled to run for up to 6 1/2 years and involve up to $1.5 billion in spending, according to Politico.

Efforts by prosecutors and defense attorneys to hammer out plea deals for defendants have been delayed by the still-incomplete database.

The DOJ has said the Capitol attack investigation is the largest criminal probe in U.S. history.

The amount of evidence grows daily, prosecutors have said, as phones, hard drives, and other devices are obtained from newly arrested defendants.

Neither the DOJ nor a Deloitte representative has responded with comment to Politico.

The Justice Department database is just one of several being established in connection with the Capitol investigation. The Federal Public Defender office in Washington, D.C., also is considering hiring a contractor to help with the massive amount of evidence, according to the same court filing.

"We understand that FPD is considering contracting with a vendor to establish databases that can be used to receive and perform technical searches upon discoverable materials," prosecutors wrote in a submission in the prosecution of two Florida men.

"The government’s discovery team is in the process of identifying the scope and size of materials that may be turned over to FPD with as much detail as possible, so that FPD can obtain accurate quotes from potential database vendors."

Politico said the FBI appears to also be using various computer systems, including facial recognition technology, to examine evidence from the attack.

Prosecutors, who are obligated to turn over to the defense all relevant evidence that could be beneficial to the defendants or aid in their defense, have said that means mean all Capitol assault defendants must have access to all or nearly all the evidence gathered in the investigation.