A former Washington, D.C. police officer who defended the Capitol from a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters on January 6 had to be pulled away from a heated argument with a prominent election denier in the middle of Jack Smith’s first-ever public testimony.
Michael Fanone, an outspoken and heavily tattooed former officer with the city’s Metropolitan Police Department, wore a Dropkick Murphy’s T-shirt with the slogan “fighting Nazis since 1996” as he sat with other former police officers to watch Smith’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee.
Those former officers had to hold back Fanone before things got physical with Ivan Raiklin, a far-right activist who was filming the interaction during a recess at Thursday’s hearing.
Fanone repeatedly told him “go f*** yourself” and called him a “traitor to this f****** country” before officers tried to pull him away.
Raiklin, a Trump loyalist who named himself the “secretary of retribution,” was among key voices amplifying a bogus conspiracy theory urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Fanone — who was dragged down the Capitol steps, beaten with pipes, pepper sprayed and threatened with his own gun during a mob’s assault in the halls of Congress on January 6, 2021 — got a front row seat to the former special counsel’s testimony.
There, Republican members of Congress accused Smith of joining a long-running Democratic conspiracy to undermine the president, whose false narrative of a “stolen” and “rigged” election fueled riots at the Capitol.
More than 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers in connection with the attack, including nearly 200 defendants charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
Trump issued sweeping pardons for all of them on his first day in office.
On Thursday, Republican Rep. Troy Nehls appeared to absolve Trump of any wrongdoing and blamed law enforcement failures that day on Capitol officials. At least 170 officers were injured in the riots, and four others later died by suicide. Fanone suffered a heart attack after he attack.
According to the White House, which has adopted Trump’s alternate history of the attack, Democratic leadership, not then-President Trump and administration officials, put peoples’ lives in danger, while Pence failed to dispute Joe Biden’s victory “in an act of cowardice and sabotage.”
In the audience, Fanone, who was flipping off Republican members during the hearing, coughed out “go f*** yourself" loud enough for microphones in the room to hear.
Raiklin introduced himself to Fanone during a recess in Thursday’s hearing.
“Dude, don’t pretend we’re not mortal enemies,” Fanone said. “You’re a traitor to this f****** country.”
Raiklin told him to “contain your Tourette’s syndrome.”
“You threatened my family, and you threatened my wife,” Fanone said.
“Why are you so spasmodic?” asked Raiklin.
Fanone challenged him to “do something.”
“Why should I? I’m communicating with you, trying to calm you down,” Raiklin said. “Look at your face right now. I think you need to control yourself.”
“F*** you, I’m using a lot of restraint right now,” said Fanone as former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn tried to pull him away.
“See how many people are restraining you? Look at me,” said Raiklin as another Capitol Police officer tried to get between them. “Total control over my mind and body and I’m dominating you.”
As Fanone was pulled away, he accused Raiklin of threatening his family and called him a “sick bastard.”
After the hearing, Fanone wrote on Substack that “when someone who made violent threats against your family walks up to you inside the Capitol — smiling, filming, and trying to humiliate you — restraint is the only thing preventing that moment from turning into something much worse.”
Raiklin, meanwhile, shared posts on X accusing Fanone of defamation and suggested he would sue the former officer.
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