Former Jan. 6 defendant William Pope seeking DOJ’s entire prosecution file on him
Former Jan. 6 defendant William Pope of Kansas has asked a U.S. district court judge to compel the U.S. Department of Justice to provide him with the entire case file used in what he called a nearly four-year “malicious prosecution.”
“I want answers as to why the government’s pursuit of me was so unprecedented and vindictive, and why certain files were destroyed or withheld from me,” Pope wrote in a motion before Judge Rudolph Contreras.
Pope, 38, of Topeka, Kansas, was facing a June 2025 trial on five criminal charges, including a felony civil disorder count and four misdemeanors. Pope is the publisher of the news website Free State Kansas and a doctoral student at Kansas State University.
The DOJ admitted he was 'entirely peaceful' on Jan. 6.
“I am also moving for the government to produce all outstanding files and information requested by my various motions, and a copy of the entire case file the government has put together on me,” Pope wrote in his Jan. 28 motion. “If the government decides not to provide these items voluntarily, I am asking the court to compel the government to produce them.”
Pope said his goal with the motion is to correctly document history and seek justice.
“My goal is justice,” Pope told Blaze News. "I won my case, and I'm totally innocent, but the government has defamed me for four years with false allegations. I want to be able to document that for history to show people what I went through. There also may still be people and organizations that need to be held accountable. We have to make sure that radical government extremism never takes over America again.”
On a motion from new U.S. Attorney Edward Martin, the case against Pope was dismissed with prejudice by Judge Contreras on Jan. 21.
Pope, who represented himself through much of his case, became known for dislodging closely held government information, including undercover video, the misdeeds of some undercover officers, and the presence of suspected FBI informants in the Jan. 6 crowds. He constantly stressed that the DOJ admitted he was “entirely peaceful” on Jan. 6.
One of his key discoveries was video evidence of a fall-back order given to Metropolitan Police Department officers on the west side of the Capitol, “which gave protesters ‘free access’ to enter the building.” He quoted one MPD officer on body cam as saying, “I can’t believe they let them in.”
Daniel Ball, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., told Blaze News, "We do not have any comment outside of what you can find on the court docket."
Pope included a list of 26 items he seeks from the DOJ, the first being the “government’s entire case file on me, including case notes and work product.”
He also wants any government emails regarding his case and any contacts with Facebook and Instagram, banking and finance institutions, “and any other companies the government may have pressured overtly or through inference to ban me from their services.”
Pope also demanded “all files and communications” related to the destruction of the bodycam video of his arrest on Feb. 12, 2021.
Some of the key items in Pope’s motion are things he has asked for during the course of his case, such as the presence of former and current FBI special agents at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
He asked for non-redacted copies of all files related to former FBI Special Agent John Guandolo, who watched the unfolding protests with current FBI agents from the east lawn of the Capitol.
Pope is also seeking any Metropolitan Police Department undercover video that has not previously been provided in case discovery. He also wants a non-redacted copy of the internal investigation reports of Officer Nicholas Tomasula and Lt. Zeb Barcus. Undercover video showed MPD officers aiding rioters to scale the Northwest Steps, and an officer even admitted during an internal affairs investigation that he had encouraged vandalism of a Capitol window.
Pope wants information on the government’s “use of temporary cellular towers and a mass geofencing warrant to collect my phone data” and “whether the government used technology to suppress cell signals.”
Among Pope’s other demands:
- Records related to Nicholas Hofer, previously known only by the hashtag “Frodo the Fash,” whom Pope said pushed him into the Capitol. Pope asks for records related to Hofer’s security clearance and working relationship with the government, “which the government has admitted to.”
- All video and other information on the phone of FBI informant James Ehren Knowles and “all files and memorandums related to the deletion of this evidence and communications between the FBI and Knowles.”
- “All records of any government agents, contractors, and informants I came within 100 feet of on January 6, 2021.”
- “All ex-parte filings made by the government to the court, including the filing related to how the government obtained my PayPal records without a warrant.”
- Information on the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including any warrantless surveillance “or other initial or ongoing surveillance made by the government in my case.”
- Any records related to the DOJ’s decision to charge him, “even though they acknowledged that I should have had protected status as a journalist.”
- Records on the government’s use of the “so-called Sedition Hunters to prepare a dossier on me.”
- Any watch lists he was placed on during his case and whether he is still on those lists.
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Washington, D.C., Police Officer Terrence Sutton was sentenced to jail because a gang member died trying to escape police.
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