The retired cop who became the face of D.C. Metropolitan Police brutalized at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has launched a private security business with a name evoking the attack—and is already providing services to a campaign of the congressman who helped spearhead the subsequent impeachment of President Donald Trump, as well as “major political organizations,” the pol told The Daily Beast.
Federal Election Commission records show the campaign of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) paid nearly $50,000 between August and February to Lower West Terrace LLC, a venture launched by Officer Michael Fanone and bearing the name of the entrance he defended on the infamous vote certification date.
As one of the managers of the second Trump impeachment trial, Swalwell committed to the congressional record Fanone’s account of the injuries he sustained during the election deniers’ bloody assault on the seat of government: Trump supporters swarmed him on the lower west terrace, tased him until he suffered cardiac arrest, and pummeled him into unconsciousness.
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Swalwell, who has personally sued Trump for fomenting the attack, said he and Fanone had bonded not only over the trauma of that day but both received menacing communications from the vanquished president’s supporters.
“He saved my life,” Swalwell said of Fanone’s service on the day of the riot. “When someone threatens to murder your kids, which happens a lot with me, having someone you know and trust to protect you and your family is kind of a free-for.”
But the Democrat was quick to assert that Fanone has not personally guarded him or his family, and maintained that the company has instead assigned a veteran of the U.S. Army’s elite Delta Force. Campaign finance records show no other federal candidate or committee has hired Lower West Terrace, but the lawmaker claimed the firm counts “major political organizations” among its clients, and that other officers present at the Capitol have served among its contractors.
Swalwell declined to provide more specific details on those points, and Fanone and his team were more reticent still. Fanone would not confirm Swalwell’s assertion that the company has served other political groups.
“The company uses highly qualified contractors who are licensed to perform security services in the respective jurisdictions,” an attorney for Lower West Terrace wrote in response to queries The Daily Beast directed to Fanone. “The company does not identify its clients or comment on the security services requested or provided to its clients.”
The Daily Beast spoke to Harry Dunn, a former Capitol police officer famous for battling rioters in the corridors of power—and for his subsequent testimony about the racist insults he endured while doing so. Now a candidate for Congress in Maryland, Dunn said Fanone had not approached him about joining the venture, but reported attending what he described as a “meet and greet” with politicians in D.C. last fall where Lower West Terrace provided security.
Two former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officers guarded the event, and Dunn said he discovered upon speaking to one of them that he too had protected the Capitol on Jan. 6. However, Dunn declined to provide names or additional details about the gathering, other than to say it was not a fundraiser.
Swalwell said Lower West Terrace, like the other security vendors his campaign and office have used, gets paid on a “for services” basis and selected depending on “need and availability and cost.”
Lower West Terrace currently has no web presence beyond online campaign finance databases and an unused domain registered through GoDaddy, indicating it relies entirely on word-of-mouth to expand its business. Virginia business records show Fanone formed the company in August 2021, four months before he retired from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and only weeks after he appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
The entity became inactive in the years that followed, until Fanone reinstated it in June. Two months later, it collected its first check, for $5,400, from Swalwell’s campaign. He’d go on to receive $43,657.50 more by mid-February.
“He told me he was starting a security company, and he knew we had a lot of threats, publicly, coming our way,” Swalwell said. “We let him bid on some of our needs.”
In January, ahead of the third anniversary of the riot, Fanone appeared in ad campaigns attacking Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)—both colleagues across the aisle from Swalwell—financed by the organization Courage for America. It also brought Fanone a spate of media hits, most of them on MSNBC. Yet in none of these instances did he mention his security firm or its work for Swalwell.
“Mr. Fanone has dedicated his life to law enforcement, he is not a politician, and his work is not political in nature,” Lower West Terrace’s lawyer wrote. “Any statement otherwise would simply not be true.”
