CRIME
Michael Fanone Says He Doesn’t ‘Give a S***’ About Jan. 6 Rioter Who Tased Him
In court Wednesday, former Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone testified that he didn’t “give a s***” about Daniel Rodriguez, the man who tased him during the January 6 insurrection.
Rodriguez was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison Wednesday for his actions, including using a taser on Fanone, during the riots. Fanone suffered a minor heart attack and brain injury during the riot, and has since battled with PTSD and “emotional trauma,” according to The Hill.
At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Rodriguez asked for mercy, saying that “Life has always seemed unfair to me,” according to NBC News. He said he wanted to return to “driving a forklift with my GED and living with my mom.”
READ MORE: Half as Many Republicans Call Jan. 6 an ‘Insurrection’ Compared to 2021
Fanone addressed the court after Rodriguez spoke, calling for a severe sentence. He said that Rodriguez and other rioters’ actions following January 6 showed a lack of remorse.
“These are Americans that engaged in seditious activity,” Fanone said. “I believe that they were traitors, and they should be sentenced accordingly. We need to stop treating these people as anything other than enemy combatants of our democracy.”
The harassment he faced after January 6 from Donald Trump supporters who believed, falsely, that the 2020 election had been “stolen” via voter fraud also sapped Fanone’s sympathy for the rioters.
“I don’t give a s*** about Daniel Rodriguez. He ceased to exist to me as a person a long time ago,” Fanone said, according to NBC. “Any compassion or empathy I felt toward those who laid siege to our Capitol, whose actions I felt were at least in part influenced by their leader Donald Trump and his lies, has been eroded — eroded by the attacks directed at me and my family by supporters of Donald Trump and the right- wing media.”
Fanone also directed ire at Trump himself for stoking the fires with his false claims of election fraud.
“Your honor, we must all join in the fight against Donald Trump and the destructive divisive movement he has come to represent,” he said. “We must offer him no safe harbor, and to his enablers — whether in business, in politics and the media — give no quarter. In the fight to preserve our Republic, there can be no spectators.”
Rodriguez shouted “Trump won!” when he left court following the sentencing hearing.
On January 6, 2021, when rioter Albuquerque Head grabbed Fanone on the capitol steps, Rodriguez put a taser against his neck twice. Following the riot, Rodriguez boasted in a Telegram group chat that he “tazzzzed the f*** out of the blue,” according to court documents. He also called for further violence.
“We must be ready next time for Pence’s body guard. Hang together or we hang separately. The best way for them to win this war is if there’s never a battle. We must do much more next time. Plan on not failing and don’t fail the plan,” Rodriguez wrote, according to evidence presented by prosecutors.
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