Quested and his producing partner Sebastian Junger became interested in the far-right group, the Proud Boys, and followed them in the weeks leading up to January 6. Quested, who captured key footage of the group during the attack at the Capitol, shared his work and his personal account of the events of that day during the committee’s first televised hearing.
He told me about the scenes of mayhem that he and his colleagues filmed that day, as well as the mysterious meeting between the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, another far-right group, that took place in a Washington, DC, parking garage the night before the assault on the US Capitol.
Disclosure: I have appeared as an interviewee in one of Quested’s documentaries. Our interview was edited for clarity.
PETER BERGEN: Why did you decide to testify?
NICK QUESTED: Because we’re approaching living in a post-factual world, and I think it’s important that these facts about January 6 are brought to bear and in an unpartisan way, especially if we can use these hearings to make sure that something like this never happens again.
BERGEN: And you had a subpoena to appear before the committee?
QUESTED: I had a subpoena. I spoke to the authorities in an interview beforehand, but when they were using my work in the way that they did, I felt it was only appropriate for them to subpoena me.
BERGEN: Your work — did you just hand it over to them, or did they request it? How did that work?
QUESTED: Well as a journalist, having filmed what were potentially many crimes, I didn’t feel there was any journalistic jeopardy giving that to authorities. I called a friend who is a US Attorney, and I said, “Listen, I have filmed I don’t know how many crimes. What do you think I should do with this?” He said, “We’ll call the DC Criminal Division.” I was then referred to an agent from the FBI. And we still had to process the footage because we shoot very high-quality video, which needs to be processed. So, we did that and then I…
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