Jan. 6 rioters who descended on Washington, D.C., with knives, hatchets, stun batons and pepper spray were set free Monday night after President Donald Trump pardoned them as one of his first official acts back in office.
The first group of would-be insurrectionists to be released include brothers Matthew and Andrew Valentin, who stripped police officers of their batons and tried to choke and pepper spray police, and Alan Hotstetter, who decided to drive from California to Washington, D.C., so he could bring a car full of weapons and tactical gear.
They were part of a violent mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and tried to overthrow former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, leaving a police officer and four rioters dead. Four other police officers died by suicide in the months that followed.
The pardons left officers who risked their lives defending the capital feeling “betrayed,” they said. At one point during the attack, Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone found himself lying stunned and injured on the ground of the U.S. Capitol building.
He’d been Tasered several times in the back of the neck, and as the mob stripped him of his ammunition, his police radio and his badge, someone tried to rip away his gun. That’s when he heard someone say, “Kill him with his own gun.”
On Monday, Fanone, now 44, reacted to the news that one of Donald Trump’s first presidential acts had been to pardon more than 1,500 rioters who stormed the Capitol and tried to overthrow former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
“I have been betrayed by my country, and I have been betrayed by those who supported Donald Trump,” Fanone told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “The only thing going through my mind is that this is what the American people voted for.”
Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump had promised to pardon the violent criminals responsible for the Jan. 6 riots, which left a police officer and four rioters dead. Four other police officers died by suicide in the months that followed.
The would-be insurrectionists were arrested for pepper spraying and beating police officers with flagpoles, stomping on their heads, throwing a bomb into a tunnel full of police, hurling officers down a flight of stairs and plotting to kill FBI agents investigating the attacks. The judge in the case concluded the riot was an act of terrorism, and leaders of the Proud Boys militia received prison sentences of up to 22 years.
Instead of condoning the violence, Trump—who also claimed to love police officers—called the rioters “hostages” and “patriots,” and even opened campaign rallies with a recording of a performance by the “J6 Prison Choir.”
“Whether you supported [Trump] because he promised these pardons or for some other reason, you knew that this was coming, and here we are,” Fanone told Cooper.
He said he’d been receiving death threats ever since he testified before Congress in July 2021 about the horrors he’d experienced on Jan. 6. As members of the mob threatened to kill him, the 20-year law enforcement veteran went into “survival mode” and tried to appeal to their humanity by telling them about his kids. Apparently, it worked, and some of the rioters protected him until help arrived.
He was so badly injured, though, he could only return to limited duty in September 2021. A few months later, he retired completely.
“Right now, I think the Republican Party owns a monopoly on hypocrisy when it comes to their supposed support of law enforcement because tonight the leader of the Republican party pardoned hundreds of violent cop assaulters,” he told Cooper.
Daniel Hodges, another Capitol police officer who testified before Congress who still serves on the force, also responded to news of the pardons with disgust.
“Just worked about 14 hours making sure Trump’s inauguration was secure and peaceful, got home, read this. Thanks America,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
Video of Hodges being beaten and crushed in a door, his mouth full of blood while he cried out for help, went viral after the attacks.
“I don’t think a day has gone by where I haven’t thought about it,” he told WUSA in the lead-up to Monday’s inauguration.
Four men who were convicted of assaulting him were presumably on Trump’s list of pardons. But Hodges said he wasn’t worried about his safety.
“I’m a cop in D.C. It’s not the first time I’ve been threatened, it’s not going to be the last. If they want to come after me, that’s their choice. I’m ready,” he said before the inauguration. “I would encourage them to rethink their ways, particularly if people are pardoned.”
Falcone, however, said he’s been concerned about his and his family’s safety ever since he testified. In recent months his 76-year-old mother’s house has been swatted, meaning someone made a fake emergency call to get police to swarm the premises.
“She’s had human feces thrown on her while she was raking leaves in her front yard,” he said. “This is who we are as a nation. This is what we have become, and it has been further exacerbated by Donald Trump.”
