The decisive election of Donald Trump on Tuesday sent a clear message to Aquilino Gonell and other officers who protected the Capitol from rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.
“It means that the American people have accepted Jan. 6 as something that could be condoned,” the former Capitol Police sergeant said the morning after Trump won his second, nonconsecutive term, handily beating Vice President Kamala Harris. “They have put Donald Trump above the law. … He betrayed us. And the vast majority of the American people think that’s OK.”
Gonell has spent the last four years publicly sharing his experiences, one of a handful of officers to do so. They feel the events — when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and assaulted police in an attempt to stop the certification of election results — have been whitewashed, despite their best attempts to describe the violence. Now they are coming to terms with the reality of another Trump presidency.
“It feels like America said, ‘F— you, Mike Fanone. We don’t care about Jan. 6,’” said former Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was injured during the attack.
Watching America resoundingly elect Trump was a tough pill to swallow, Fanone said. It comes after House Republicans worked to absolve Trump, who falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him, by poking holes in the work of the select committee that investigated the attack of Jan. 6, 2021, in the previous Congress.
And it means the Department of Justice will likely wind down its criminal cases against Trump, including one brought by special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith related to the president-elect’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Nobody seems to be willing to hold Donald Trump accountable in any way,” Gonell said. “I think the majority of people in this country saw what happened on Jan. 6. But they seem to have amnesia.”
Gonell and Fanone have each written memoirs detailing their experience and have been vocal critics of Trump. They testified before the select committee in 2021, along with former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and MPD officer Daniel Hodges.
This election cycle, Gonell served as a campaign surrogate and played a more active role in Harris’ presidential campaign, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and appearing in a campaign ad. Fanone, who is no fan of Trump but said he wasn’t inspired by Harris, was not affiliated with the vice president’s campaign. Both are involved with a group called Courage for America, which describes itself as “speaking out against an extremist agenda.”
They suffered physically and psychologically in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, both have said.
Fanone was brutally beaten and shocked in the neck. He suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury and left the force later that year. He said he’s the target of daily harassment and has struggled to find a steady job since then. Earlier this year, after Fanone called Trump “an authoritarian” with a “violence fetish,” his mother’s home was swatted.
He spent much of Wednesday morning consoling his daughters, who feared Trump might make good on a promise to prosecute his political opponents and target their father.
“I was looking forward to not having to look over my shoulder,” Fanone said. “And now it’s like, you know something really bad is going to happen. It’s exhausting.”
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly pledged during his campaign to pardon rioters convicted for their participation in the Jan. 6 attack, a promise that feels like a slap in the face to Gonell.
“Oh, absolutely, I would. If they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” Trump said when asked in July during a panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists. “They were convicted by a very tough system.” The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on that plan.
“Why the f— did I risk my life on Jan. 6 to defend our elected officials, our government, from the mob that this person sent to the Capitol, only for him to be returned to power?” Gonell said.
Gonell suffered injuries that required surgeries and led to the end of his police career. He said he was diagnosed with PTSD in the aftermath, and relationships with friends and family — some of whom still support Trump — have suffered as a result of his decision to speak up.
“I’m still picking up the pieces from that day,” Gonell said.
“I don’t hate Donald Trump. I don’t hate his supporters. I hate what he did, or what he didn’t do, to help us when we were at the Capitol that day,” he continued. “And I will continue to advocate for the things that matter to me.”
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