6 January - Capitol riot

14 January - FBI arrests John SULLIVAN, charged with multiple offences, arrest and charging widely reported

27 January - SULLIVAN invoices Australia's ABC for use of the video of his crimes

1 February - Australia's ABC airs its 4 Corners report

12 February - ABC pays SULLIVAN $2,500 USD minus $125 tax

From the exceptionally well researched Seeker of Truth:

John Earle SULLIVAN signed exclusive use agreements with the US news outlets so they couldn't share his video. They had rights to use that film footage for only one week. He was all clued up. However, within that one week period, CNN discovered that Sullivan had been arrested and charged so ceased use of his footage unlike the ABC which used it in its Four Corners program shown on 1 February. As reported in the New York Post -

“On January 6th, CNN was contacted by a reputable agent regarding an eye-witness video from the Capitol Hill riots. The company entered into a one-week agreement for use of 44-seconds of key content, which was attributed to the witness on air. When his role in the event was later called into question, the company informed staff to cease all use of the video,” a CNN spokesperson said."

https://nypost.com/2021/02/17/accused-capitol-rioter-john-sullivan-sold-footage-for-35k-to-nbc-cnn

Those wanting to use Sullivan's film footage in a story like our ABC for its Four Corners program had to negotiate its own license agreement/fee arrangement with Sullivan through his agent.

Unlike CNN, it didn't matter to our ABC that Sullivan had by then been arrested and charged.

The date in Sullivan's invoice indicates when the agreement was reached and that was 27 January 2021 which was five days before it was screened in Australia.

There was time for Sarah Ferguson and her ABC mates to remove it from their story. 

Five days. 

But they chose not to do so.

ENDS

Here's a 15 January report regarding SULLIVAN, ignored by the ABC.

BLACK Lives Matter activist John Sullivan was arrested by the FBI on January 14, due to his alleged involvement in the Capitol riots.
Sullivan's arrest comes as the FBI continues it crackdown on rioters who participated in the attempted Capitol siege to protest Joe Biden's presidential victory.