Global Courant
A California man who punched a police officer in the neck during one of the most violent clashes of the Capitol riots was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.
Daniel (DJ) Rodriguez yelled, “Trump won!” as he was led from the courtroom where U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack. Only two other January 6 defendants have received longer prison terms to date after hundreds of riot convictions at the Capitol.
The judge said Rodriguez, 40, was “a one-man army of hate, attacking police and destroying property” at the Capitol.
“You showed up in (Washington) DC to fight for a fight,” Jackson said. “You can’t blame anyone but yourself for what you did once you got there.”
Police officer Michael Fanone’s body camera captured him screaming in pain after Rodriguez shocked him with a stun gun while surrounded by a crowd.
Another rioter had dragged Fanone into the crowd outside a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where a line of police officers guarded an entrance to the building. Other rioters began beating Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after Rodriguez pressed the stun gun to his neck and shocked him repeatedly.
Officer suffered career-ending injuries
Fanone addressed the judge before issuing the sentence. The former officer described how the Jan. 6 attack prematurely ended his law enforcement career and made him a target for Donald Trump supporters who clung to the lie that the Democrats stole the 2020 election from the incumbent Republican.
Fanone left the courtroom in the middle of Rodriguez’s statement to the judge. He did not miss an apology from Rodriguez, who has been in prison for more than two years and will receive credit for the time he has already served.
“I’m hopeful that one day Michael Fanone will be okay,” said Rodriguez. “It sounds like he’s in a lot of pain.”
Fanone said he left the courtroom because he was not interested in his attacker’s “incoherent, incoherent” statement.
“Nothing he could have said to me today would have made any difference,” he said.
Fanone’s injuries eventually ended his career in law enforcement. He has written a book about his experience on January 6 and testified before a House committee investigating the rebellion that disrupted the joint session of Congress to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
WATCH l Fanone testifies about January 6 at the 2021 House committee hearing:
Officer talks about vicious attack during riot hearing at the Capitol in the Capitol
Metropolitan DC police officer Michael Fanone testified Tuesday that rioters threatened to “kill him with his own gun” during the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. He lashed out at the “indifference” of some elected US lawmakers who downplayed the riot.
“Rodriguez’s criminal conduct on January 6 was the epitome of disrespect for the law; he fought with law enforcement officers in the U.S. Capitol for hours, nearly costing an officer his life, to halt official proceedings inside,” prosecutors wrote. a court file.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty to four felony counts, including conspiracy and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He entered the plea about two weeks before his trial in Washington, D.C. was due to begin
On January 6, Rodriguez attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally before joining the mob of rioters who attacked police in the Lower West Terrance tunnel.
“Rodriguez pushed his way to the front of the line of rioters fighting the officers, yelling into his megaphone at the besieged line,” the prosecutors wrote.
Rodriguez fired a fire extinguisher at police officers in the tunnel and pushed a wooden pole against the police line before another rioter, Kyle Young, handed him what appeared to be a stun gun, according to prosecutors.
Young was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his role in the assault of the officer. Young grabbed Fanone by the wrist as others shouted, “Kill him!” and “Get his gun!”
After the attack, Rodriguez entered the building and smashed a window with a wooden stake before exiting the Capitol grounds.
Trump followed “blindly,” the defense argues
During an interview with FBI agents following his March 2021 arrest, Rodriguez said that on January 6, he believed he was doing the “right thing” and that he was willing to die to “save the country.” He cried as he spoke to the officers, saying he was “stupid” and ashamed of his actions.
In the days leading up to Jan. 6, Rodriguez spewed violent rhetoric into a Telegram group chat dubbed “PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang.”
“Blood will flow. Welcome to the revolution,” Rodriguez wrote a day before the riot.
WATCH l US Government Scores Rare Conviction For Incendiary Conspiracy:
Oath Keepers founder gets 18 years in prison for riot crimes at the Capitol
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. It is the longest sentence yet for any crime committed during the attempted rebellion. The judge said Rhodes poses a continuing threat to American democracy.
Rodriguez’s lawyers said he idolized Trump and saw the former president “as the father he wishes he had”.
Rodriguez blindly trusted and admired Trump so much that he referred to him as ‘dad’ in his social media chats leading up to Jan. demanded for their client.
More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 riot. More than 700 of them have pleaded guilty or have been convicted after trials. And about 550 of them have been convicted, with more than half serving prison terms ranging from seven days to 18 years.
