Washington police officers warn of increased violence if Trump pardons Jan. 6 rioters

WASHINGTON (CN) — President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to pardon certain defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol rang alarm bells for law enforcement officers who publicly testified before the House Jan. 6 Committee and at countless criminal proceedings.

During a press call hosted by Public Citizen Wednesday, former Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone said that he has received “dozens upon dozens” of threats from currently incarcerated Jan. 6 defendants.

Fanone, who was dragged from the police line outside the Capitol into a mob of rioters, tased multiple times in the back of the neck and suffered a concussion, warned that if Trump pardoned such defendants “the level of violence is going to rise.”

“I think it’s good for [the public] to prepare yourselves for acts of violence that are inevitably going to be committed against the witnesses from those criminal cases, so that you’re not surprised by them, and the American people understand that this is what the fuck you voted for,” Fanone said.

Trump has remained vague as to how far-reaching his pardons would extent — previously stating he would consider them on a “case-by-case basis” and decrying the treatment of nonviolent defendants— but hinted in a press conference on Tuesday that he may consider pardons for violent offenders.

Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump deflected when asked by reporters specifically if he would pardon anyone who attack police officers, claiming instead that his supporters were the actual victims. He highlighted Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a police officer when she tried to break and climb through a window into the Speaker’s chamber, and said she was “shot for no reason whatsoever.”

While Trump claimed Babbitt was the only person killed at the riot, three other rioters died at the Capitol, four police officers died by suicide in the months that followed and another died after suffering from two strokes on Jan. 7.

Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Aquilino Gonell, who was also dragged into the mob and clashed with rioters at the Lower West Terrace tunnel where the violence was the most intense, condemned Trump’s characterization during Wednesday’s call.

Gonell said history would remember the officers who defended the Capitol, not the so-called victims who attacked it.

When asked about the current mood among Capitol police officers regarding Trump’s looming inauguration and the presence of certain Jan. 6 defendants in the crowd, Gonell said many feel uneasy.

Since Trump’s 2024 election several rioters have requested permission to attend his inauguration on Jan. 20. To date just one defendant, William Pope, received permission from U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. Pope has yet to face trial and remains on pre-trial release.

Gonell added that many feel betrayed by Republican lawmakers who “ran for their lives” on Jan. 6 but have since turned around to “kiss the ring” and welcome Trump back.

During his Tuesday press conference, Trump repeated a debunked conspiracy theory that the violence of Jan. 6 was sparked by undercover FBI agents and informants — and added a bizarre assertion that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was also somehow involved.

Tennessee Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat who has repeatedly introduced an amendment seeking to limit the presidential pardon power, said during Wednesday’s press call that Trump was the only one responsible for the violence and the deaths of officers and rioters like Babbitt.

“If it weren’t for Donald Trump, this would not have occurred, and this is a way for him, to some extent assuming he has a conscience, to absolve his conscience by pardoning these people that are in jail because of him,” Cohen said.

He explained that his amendment, which he first introduced in 2017, would have prohibited “illegitimate” uses of the pardon power and addressed both of President Joe Biden’s recent pardons and commutations of his son Hunter Biden and nearly 1,500 people.

The panel addressed the question of Biden potentially issuing preemptive pardons for people on a so-called “enemy list” that Trump and his respective picks for attorney general and FBI director, Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, have indicated may include people who investigated and spoke out against Jan. 6.

Fanone and Gonell rejected the idea they would accept such a pardon, which would carry with it an acceptance of guilt.

“I didn’t do anything fucking wrong. If they want to prosecute me, I say bring it on motherfuckers,” Fanone said.

In an interview with USA TODAY published Wednesday, Biden said he had not decided whether to issue any preemptive pardons for people like former Republican Representative Liz Cheney or former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci. The sitting president said he urged Trump not to target people during a Nov. 13 meeting in the Oval Office.

Norman Eisen, former special counsel for ethics and government reform under President Barack Obama, suggested Biden could instead grant amnesty for such figures, which would categorically protect them from prosecution.

Biden has not addressed the question of amnesty to date.

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