WASHINGTON (AP) — When Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time on Jan. 20, 2025, former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell puts his phone on “do not disturb” and puts it on his bedside table to take a break from the news.
That evening, after Gornell spent time with his family and took his dog for a walk, his cellphone started receiving calls. He received information from federal prosecutors, FBI agents and the federal Bureau of Prisons, all of which informed him that the new president had just pardoned approximately 1,500 people convicted of actions at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The pardons included rioters who injured Gornell as he and other police officers tried to protect the Capitol.
“They told me the person I was testifying against was about to be released from prison,” Gornell said. “And be mindful.”
Gornell was one of the officers who guarded the West Front Center entrance to the Capitol that day as Congress was certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the building, echoing his false claims that the election was stolen. As Gornell tried to fight off the crowd, his shoulder strap was dragged into the crowd. He almost suffocated. In court, he testified that he suffered shoulder and foot injuries that still bother him to this day.
“They are trying to downplay the violent attack and erase what I did through pardons and other means,” Gonell said. “I lost my career, my health, but I’ve been trying to get my life back.”
Five years after the siege, Gonell and some of the other police officers who fought off the rioters are still coming to terms with what happened, especially after Trump was decisively re-elected and granted pardons last year. Their fight has been complicated by statements from a Republican president and some Republican members of Congress minimizing violence against police.
“It’s been a tough year,” said Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who was injured while fighting in a tunnel near Gornell on the Western Front. Hodges was attacked multiple times, pinned between heavy doors by thugs and beaten on the head as he screamed for help.
“A lot of things are getting worse,” Hodges said.
evolving narrative
More than 140 police officers were injured in the fighting on January 6, which became increasingly brutal as time went on.
Six months after the riot, former Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger took over the department. He said in a recent interview that when he first arrived, many of his officers were angry, not only because they were injured, but also “that they didn’t have the equipment and training they needed” to deal with unexpectedly violent crowds.
Several police officers who battled the rioters told The Associated Press that the hardest thing to deal with was the effort by many to downplay the violence, despite the vast amount of video and photo evidence documenting the carnage.
Trump called the rioters he pardoned, including those most violent toward police, “patriots” and “hostages.” He called their convictions for injuring police officers and breaking into buildings a “grave national injustice.”
“I think it’s wrong,” former D.C. police officer Adam Eveland said of Trump’s pardon. Ifrane said if pardons are to be granted, the Trump administration should review every case.
“It’s hard for me to deal with this,” said Ifran, who fought with the rioters and helped push them off the Capitol grounds.
Former Capitol Police Officer Winston Pingeon, who joined the force’s civil disturbance team on Jan. 6, said the pardon “erases what little bit of justice there is.” After a few months, he left the army.
Legislators and public resistance
Hodges and Gornell have been speaking out about their experiences since July 2021, when they testified before the Democratic-led House committee investigating the events of January 6. Since then, they have received support but also fierce opposition.
Hodges again testified as a witness called by Democrats at a Republican-led Senate hearing on political violence in October. After Hodges told his story on Jan. 6, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., asked other witnesses if they supported Trump pardoning the rioters, including those who hurt Hodges. Three witnesses called by Republicans raised their hands.
“I don’t know how you can say it wasn’t violent,” said Hodges, who is still a Washington police officer.
It’s not just politicians or rioters who are suspicious of police. It’s also friends and family.
“My biggest struggle over the years has been the public perception of this,” Ifran said, speaking with people close to him, including some fellow police officers, who thought it was no big deal.
“It’s hard for me to understand this, but ideology is a very powerful thing,” he said.
Security and support improvements
Manger, the former Capitol Police chief, said officers were left stranded in the aftermath and the department had to figure out how to better support them. He said there were no health or counseling services when he arrived, but those were already in place.
“We need to make sure that the officers who were there and involved in the fight are getting the help they need,” Mange said.
Mager, who retired in May, also oversaw major improvements to the department’s training, equipment, operational planning and intelligence. He said the Capitol is “much safer” now than when he arrived.
“If the same thing happens again, they will never break into the building, they will never go inside, they will never disrupt the electoral count,” Manger said.
Pinkin, a former Capitol Police officer, said he believes the department is in many ways “recognizable” from what it was on Jan. 6 and when he left months later.
“This is a wake-up call,” he said.
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Pinkin, who was attacked and knocked to the ground while trying to prevent people from entering the Capitol, said Jan. 6 was one of the reasons he left the department and moved to his home in Massachusetts. He expressed his experiences through images of the Capitol and his time there, and advocated for nonviolence. He said he was now ready to forgive.
“The real trauma and heartache and everything I’ve endured as a result of these events, I want to get away from it,” he said.
Gornell left Capitol Police with injuries. He has not yet returned to work, although he would like to work again. He has written a book about his experience and says he still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder related to the attack.
While many of the officers present have remained silent about their experiences, Ifran said he felt it was important to speak openly about the events of January 6 in order to reach people and “look at it from a logical perspective.”
Still, he said, “I had to come to terms with the fact that just because something happened to me and became a big part of my world, it didn’t mean that everyone else had to understand it or even sympathize with it.”
He added: “The only thing I can do is tell my story and hope that people who respect me will eventually listen.”