The Department of Justice has hired Deloitte to construct a database of images, videos, and social media posts related to the January 6 Capitol riot to assist government prosecutors in their cases, according to court filings reviewed by POLITICO. The technology contract has a $6.1 million price tag, and it keeps rising.
The database developed by Deloitte Financial Advisory Services will streamline the process of providing defense attorneys with pretrial discovery as required for more than 500 cases criminally prosecuting Capitol rioters. Deloitte specializes in “complex litigation technology.”
The cases involve thousands of hours of police body-camera footage and surveillance camera recordings, more than a million videos from social media, data copied from cell phones and emails, and thousands of grand jury subpoenas, according to court documents filed Thursday.
“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” that is highly technical and specialized, the U.S. attorneys wrote.
The already massive collection of evidence continues to grow exponentially, holding up prosecutors and their cases.
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“The government is working to provide an unprecedented amount of materials in the most comprehensive and usable format to defense counsel,” they added.
The $6.1 million contract award by the federal government to Deloitte could balloon to $26 million, POLITICO estimated.
The federal government has previously set aside $1.5 billion in spending for similar Justice Department projects. The Deloitte database is one of several in development for the Capitol riot investigations.
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