Members of the U.S. Capitol Police who faced a violent mob of Donald Trump’s supporters during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection welcomed the news Tuesday that a federal grand jury had indicted the former president over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
“Our justice system has a duty to try those who commit crimes, and Donald Trump must answer for his — he is not above the law and his attack on our democracy was un-American, despicable, and unforgivable,” former Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fanone, who was brutally beaten and burned during the attack, called the insurrection “malicious” and criticized Republicans for continuing to stand by the former president, who is leading in polls of the 2024 GOP presidential race.
“It disgusts me that House Republicans are heinously coming to the defense of Trump’s criminal behavior while putting up the foundation of our democracy as collateral,” Fanone said.
Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who struggled to defend the U.S. Capitol through hours of violence, called the indictment “only a mile marker along the highway to justice and accountability.”
Winston Pingeon, another former member of the force who was beaten during hours of what he called “hand-to-hand combat” outside the Capitol, said he was “one step closer” to seeing justice for himself and others.
More than 100 Capitol Police officers suffered injuries during the attack, which resulted in five deaths after Trump supporters stormed the building in the hope of stopping Congress from affirming Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
Last year, an aide to Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows testified before Congress that Trump knew his supporters were armed with weapons before he urged them to march on the Capitol the day of the attack.
D.C. Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who was crushed by the mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, reflected on that detail after the news of the indictment came out Tuesday.
“He was advised many in the crowd were armed. ‘They’re not here to hurt *me*,’” Hodges wrote. “Implying he knew who they were there to hurt. And then he sent them to the Capitol, and to my colleagues and I.”
The charges against Trump include conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights, according to the 45-page indictment unsealed on Tuesday.