A Jan. 6 rioter who allegedly used an “electroshock weapon” to assault Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone after which bragged in regards to the assault to associates is predicted to plead responsible to associated fees on Tuesday.
“Omg I did a lot f—ing s— rn and bought away let you know later,” Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, of Fontana, California, wrote in a gaggle chat with different rioters, in accordance with an indictment filed in federal courtroom in Washington. “Tazzzzed the f— out of the blue.”
Rodriguez is charged with eight federal counts, together with obstructing an official continuing; impeding, obstructing, or interfering with a legislation enforcement officer throughout the fee of a civil dysfunction; and assaulting a federal officer with a harmful weapon.
His case had been scheduled to go to trial this month.
One other rioter concerned within the assault on Fanone, an Iowa man named Kyle Younger who had introduced his 16-year-old son with him to the Capitol, was sentenced in September to more than seven years in jail.
Prosecutors mentioned Rodriguez and one other California man, Edward Badalian, had been a part of a Telegram group chat known as the “Patriots 45 MAGA Gang.” The indictment described the chat as “a platform to advocate violence in opposition to sure teams and people that both supported the 2020 presidential election outcomes, supported what the group perceived as liberal, or communist ideologies, or held positions of authority within the authorities.”
Badalian posted on the chat that he deliberate to drive to D.C. and mentioned that “we have to violently take away traitors,” in accordance with the indictment. Rodriguez posted that he was in: “Congress can hold. I am going to do it. Please allow us to get these individuals pricey God,” he wrote. They left Los Angeles for D.C. in a van with different protesters on Jan. 3, prosecutors mentioned.
Badalian advised the “chat that he had respirators, masks, snow goggles, knee pads and baseball helmets for the group,” the indictment mentioned, including that they joined up with a “caravan” of different protesters en route.
The pair attended then-President Donald Trump’s rally on the Ellipse earlier than heading to the Capitol, and had walkie-talkies to coordinate, the courtroom submitting mentioned.
When violence broke out on the Capitol grounds, prosecutors mentioned Rodriguez was within the thick of it. He “threw a flagpole on the police line” and “deployed a hearth extinguisher on the officers,” the indictment mentioned.
One other rioter gave Rodriguez a stun gun, which he used on Fanone as the group surged ahead and mobbed the officer. Fanone “subsequently misplaced consciousness and was later admitted to Washington Hospital Middle for remedy for his accidents,” the feds mentioned.
Fanone suffered a coronary heart assault and a traumatic mind harm throughout the assault, and resigned from the police division he had served for 20 years in December 2021.
Badalian has pleaded not responsible and is scheduled to face trial on Feb. 27.
At the least 985 individuals have been arrested in reference to the Jan. 6 riot, and 500 have pleaded responsible, in accordance with info launched this month by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for Washington, D.C.
