WASHINGTON— Michael FanoneA former police officer who was nearly killed by a mob during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol spoke outside the courthouse Tuesday during closing arguments in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, calling Trump “an authoritarian” with “a violence fetish.” .”
Hours later, Fanone’s mother was “beaten” in her Virginia home.
On Tuesday, a fake “manifesto” attributed to Fanone was sent to a number of email addresses, including some associated with a high school Fanone attended for a year more than two decades ago. The “manifesto,” viewed by NBC News, claimed the writer had killed their mother and planned to go to the recipient’s school on Wednesday and shoot more people. It contained Fanone’s mother’s home address.
That evening, Fanone told NBC News, his mother opened the door to law enforcement while in her nightgown, “mortified” to find SWAT team officers at her home.
“How dangerous is it to send law enforcement to an address where you basically describe an active shooter where the only person present is a 78-year-old f***ing woman,” Fanone told NBC News. “This is the reality of standing up to or challenging Donald Trump. … These swatting calls are incredibly dangerous, especially when the target is someone like my mother.”
The Fairfax County Police Department’s Threat Assessment Management Team assisted in the investigation, the department told NBC News. Alexandria police did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. The FBI had no immediate comment.
Fanone said he understood police had received more than 20 calls in connection with the swatting incident. Fanone said his father was also listed as an address, but he was out of the country.
“All I’m doing is going out and talking about what happened to me and so many other police officers, like I always have, and this is the story,” Fanone said. “This is the direct result of that.”
Fanone previously spoke out about the attack on the Capitol before the Jan. 6 Committee and has made comments during the sentencing hearings of rioters who attacked him. He left the Metropolitan Police Department at the end of 2021 after getting a desk job and feeling targeted by other officers within MPD.
Fanone, who voted for Trump in 2016, spoke outside the courthouse on Tuesday as part of a campaign event for President Joe Biden. He blamed Trump’s “lies” for the attack on the Capitol.
“These supporters were fueled by Trump’s lies and the lies of his surrogates, lies that the 2020 election was stolen,” Fanone said. “Those same lies have been spewed by Donald Trump and his surrogates about what happened to me and so many other police officers on January 6, 2021, the day I was brutally attacked.”
Fanone named four people – all Trump supporters – who attacked him on January 6, 2021: Albuquerque Head, who is serving 7.5 years in federal prison; Kyle Young, who has served for more than seven years; Thomas Sibick, who was sentenced to four years; and Danny “DJ” Rodriguez, who drove a stun gun into Fanone’s neck and is serving one of the longest sentences imposed on a Jan. 6 rioter, 12.5 years in federal prison.
“All four of these individuals are self-proclaimed Trump supporters, all four committed a violent attack on law enforcement. I am just one representative of the hundreds of police officers who were attacked that day by Donald Trump supporters, inspired by his lies. the lies that to this day inspire my fellow Americans to turn on their fellow Americans and turn on police officers,” Fanone said. “Ultimately, this election is about Donald Trump and his vision for the office of the President of the United States, not as an official accountable to the elected, to the people who elected him, but as an authoritarian. who answers and serves only himself.”
Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the federal election interference case against Trump in Washington and the classified documents case in Florida, was the target of a Christmas swatting attempt, as NBC News reported. So did Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge overseeing Washington’s election interference case, which is currently on hold while the Supreme Court decides whether the presidency is a license to commit crimes with full immunity.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
