Former DC officer seeks protection after Jan. 6 attackers pardoned – NBC4 Washington

On By Littum

As a DC police officer, Mike Fanone spent more than 20 years protecting his neighbors. Now he tries to protect himself and his family.

Fanone went to the Prince William County Courthouse on Tuesday to seek protective orders against the five men who pleaded guilty to violently assaulting him during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“The fact that I have to do this to try to give my family some measure of protection is outrageous,” Fanone said. “But we are in an age of government lawlessness.”

Within hours of being sworn back into office, President Donald Trump made good on a campaign promise to pardon or commute the sentences of those charged on Jan. 6, saying, “So this is Jan. 6; these are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 (people) for a full pardon.”

Among those pardoned were the five men who pleaded guilty to dragging Fanone into the crowd of rioters, beating him and shocking him with a stun gun.

“I feel betrayed. I feel betrayed by my country.”

Former DC police officer Mike Fanone, whose attackers were pardoned along with hundreds of other defendants on January 6, by President Trump on Monday.

One of those men, Daniel Rodriguez, pleaded guilty in 2023 to several federal charges, including wounding an officer with a violent weapon. He has now been completely pardoned.

The Justice Department used video from Fanone’s body camera as evidence that Rodriguez shocked Fanone on January 6.

Fanone would later suffer a heart attack and ultimately retire from the Metropolitan Police Department.

Rodriguez was sentenced to serve 12 and a half years – until he was pardoned and released from prison.

“I feel betrayed,” Fanone said. “I feel betrayed by my country.”

When Trump issued the pardons, it also eliminated any protective orders that might have been in place. That is why Fanone is now seeking them against the five men who have been convicted of assaulting him. All five are now out of prison.

“Those of us in Donald Trump’s crosshairs cannot trust these government institutions, which for centuries have been charged with keeping Americans safe,” Fanone said. “We cannot trust these government institutions, which for centuries have been charged with keeping Americans safe.”

He was shocked and beaten, and now Fanone feels that he has been stabbed in the back by the very institutions he fought to protect.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office pardoning about 1,500 defendants involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.