Cowards, Liars And Jan. 6: Former Officer Michael Fanone Speaks Out As Trump’s Return Looms

“I don't believe we live in a democracy anymore," says Michael Fanone, who was nearly killed by Trump supporters four years ago.

Four years ago, then-outgoing President Donald Trump stood on the Ellipse on the National Mall and proclaimed to his supporters that they were “not going to take back your government with weakness” and that they should “fight like hell” or else they were “not going to have a country anymore.”

Soon after, as the mob descended on lawmakers certifying the results of the 2020 election, won by Joe Biden, Michael Fanone, then a District of Columbia Metropolitan Police officer, would be viciously assaulted as he defended the U.S. Capitol. He was electroshocked on his neck with a Taser; he was kicked and beaten. His radio was ripped off his body; his badge stripped away from him. The group of men who assaulted him came at him five at a time. Fanone had a heart attack and lost consciousness. At one point during the assault, he pleaded with the Trump supporters clawing at him to consider his children.

Shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, Fanone left the police force. He has spent much of the last four years warning the public that indifference to the insurrection would spell the death of democracy as Americans know it. He poured himself into disseminating this warning while watching, like many others, as legal attempt after legal attempt to hold Trump to any account for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 events evaporated.

The experience has left Fanone with no confidence in his fellow police officers, the justice system at large or the American public.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that he got away with inciting an insurrection as well as defrauding the American people and attempting to subvert democracy,” Fanone told HuffPost during a phone interview just ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Capitol riot.