Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn expressed outrage over President Donald Trump's decision to release all of the J6 rioters from custody, including those convicted of violent acts.
Dunn has said he still suffers from post traumatic stress disorder after defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,
in what has been called “likely the largest single-day, mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history.”
"Man, I'm just so frustrated with everybody's indifference and apathy leading up to this," Dunn told CNN's Jim Acosta on Wednesday.
Trump gave the order on his first day back in office to pardon all 1,500 of the criminals and defendants involved in the riots. Despite Vice President J.D. Vance and Attorney General Nominee Pam Bondi contending that the violent offenders should be held accountable, "Trump just said: 'F--- it: Release 'em all,'"
a White House adviser told Axios.
Acosta asked, "Does the government need to provide protection to certain members of the Capitol Police Department who were assaulted that day, D.C. Police Department who were assaulted that day, and are now worried that now that these people have been released, that they pose a danger to those officers?"
Acosta continued, "As you know, Harry, there have been relatives of some of these rioters who turned them in. One has to assume that those family members who turned in their relatives because they were involved on January 6th, that they have to be fearful. Doesn't the government need to do something about this?"
Dunn answered, "Sure, those are all valid concerns. And, yeah, one would think, right, that these people, when they testified or these witnesses that gave information, they did it to help the government. So why not the government should help them? Every case, I guess, is different, you know, depending on what people want and how people feel and their safety. But, I think, isn't that the job of the Justice Department, isn't that the job of the president to protect their citizens, to protect those who stand up for what's right for American People?"
"But, Harry, the president is now Donald Trump," Acosta said. "What is your message to him after he's done this?"
"The same thing it's been for the last four years — you're wrong!" Dunn exclaimed. "You're wrong, and you should be ashamed of yourself!"
Dunn and the other officers who protected the Capitol on that day received the Presidential Citizens Medal from Joe Biden in 2023.
CHICAGO — The Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol may be in the rearview for many Americans, but it’s remained a centerpiece of former President Donald Trump’s campaign — from his song with “the J6 choir” to him dubbing those federal convicts “hostages.”
And while the economy, immigration and war in the Middle East are also on the top of voter’s minds this cycle, some of the officers left scarred by the failed insurrectionists are combating Trump’s rhetoric by pounding the pavement in battleground states nationwide this election cycle.
That includes one former officer who could soon find his way back to Congress — as an elected lawmaker.
“I've been out on the road for Vice President Harris, and I couldn't be happier,” former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn told Raw Story while trekking through the crowded Democratic National Convention arena in Chicago as delegates praised his service and stopped him for selfies.
Dunn was one of a handful of officers who garnered headlines for testifying in front of the 117th Congress about the brutality, racism and abuse law enforcement officials endured at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Earlier this year, Dunn lost a Democratic primary for an open Maryland congressional seat, but he says he feels at home in the party. Now, as a surrogate for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, Dunn has already been to Michigan and Wisconsin, and he’ll be traveling to North Carolina soon.
Other officers left scarred in the aftermath of the attack are also speaking out this election cycle, including Daniel Hodges, Michael Fanone and Aquilino Gonell, who recounted to the delegates gathered in Chicago his story of being brutalized by a pole with an American flag still waving from the other end.
As hard as it is to discuss trauma they endured that day, Dunn says there’s no quit in them.
“All the swing states. Us officers, we are out on the road,” Dunn said. “As long as Donald Trump is spewing lies about January 6, you're gonna find me and us pushing back against him.”
While they aren’t officially a part of the campaign, the Harris-Walz ticket covers Dunn’s travel expenses as he traverses the nation’s last remaining purple states between now and November.
“Do you worry about J6 being normalized?” Raw Story asked.
“Hell yeah. There's been no accountability for it, and the Supreme Court just basically just said ‘F— you, Donald Trump can do what he wants to do,’” Dunn said. “So what accountability? That's why on November 5th we have to get rid of them, because there's no more institutions left to save us. The calvary is the voters.”
Dunn and the other officers have allies, especially those lawmakers who still carry the trauma of that day with them.
“Do you worry about Jan. 6 being normalized?” Raw Story asked. “Like, on the House side of the Capitol they’ve been using the committees to defend them.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told Raw Story at Chicago’s United Center. “It's weird. But at the end of the day, there's not much he can do unless he gets elected. And every day it looks less and less like he's going to get elected, and the more he says this crazy stuff, the less likely he makes it.”
Whitehouse says the worse Trump looks in the polls, the more he’s been reviving his rhetoric about hundreds of his supporters serving out January 6-related prison stints.
“His grip on reality, I think, is slipping further, and what he knows is what he said before. And so as he flails around, he goes back to stuff that he said before, even if it makes no sense,” Whitehouse said. “He's not making sense right now. He's just singing familiar songs. It's like a ritual chanting. [Republicans] love their ritual chants.”
The attack on the Capitol has come up throughout the Democratic convention, but it proved to be a centerpiece of Wednesday night’s programming.
Convention-goers were shown video of officers being overwhelmed and assaulted at the Capitol before Gonell, a former Capitol Police sergeant, spoke on Capitol Police officer’s behalf.
And some members of the select Jan. 6 committee were also given prime speaking slots, including its former chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS).
Thompson says Trump’s rhetoric is beyond troubling.
“That's one of the reasons we got to defeat him and not let him get back there,” Thompson told Raw Story while walking through the convention hall in Chicago. “Because that kind of behavior under him will become the norm and we could very well have a situation that's even worse.”
While these lawmakers and officers aren’t surprised Trump has tripled down on his J6 rhetoric this election, they’re also prepared to correct the record for the American people.
“That's who he is. That's why the choice for this election couldn’t be more clear,” Dunn said. “He’s already said he doesn't know if he's gonna accept the results of it, so he's already planting those seeds. He’s planting the seeds for Jan. 6 to happen again.”
“Harris, because she's VP, should she not certify it if he wins?” Raw Story asked.
“No. The Democrats, we follow the rules,” Dunn told Raw Story. “But we're not gonna speak that into existence. Kamala Harris is gonna win this thing. That’s it.”
WASHINGTON — After protecting – and studying – lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol for the past 15 years, Harry Dunn turned his service revolver over to the Capitol Police at the end of 2023.
He then entered the 2024 race to represent residents of Maryland’s 3rd congressional district, which curls through the suburbs south and west of Baltimore, as a Democrat.
Dunn found his life upended during the 2021 Capitol insurrection as he protected then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s staffers from militia group the Oath Keepers and other violent attackers.
In the three years since the Capitol attack, Dunn has made it his mission to raise the alarm about what he sees as the greatest threat to American democracy: former President Donald Trump.
He offered gripping testimony about the day to the U.S. House’s select January 6 committee.
“I was distressed, I was angry, and I was scared," Dunn testified to the select committee in 2022. "During the event, it was just about surviving."
He also became a New York Times bestselling author with his book “Standing my Ground.”
In this Raw Story exclusive, Dunn discusses more than his newfound ambitions as a politician – “Don't think of me as one! I’m a public servant.” He also pulls the veil back on how his fellow officers reacted to his accidental activism and what he views as the hypocrisy of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“I refuse – win or lose this election – to let the story of January 6 and the narrative go in any other direction than the truth. Hell, that's been my mission since I started speaking out three years ago,” Dunn told Raw Story.
The distinguished former Capitol Police officer also discussed his personal interactions with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other lawmakers – “a lot of the people that are holding those seats shouldn't be there” – including House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has supported imprisoned Jan. 6 attackers and seems to be auditioning to get the vice-presidential nod from Trump.
Raw Story’s conversation with Dunn is lightly edited for length and clarity:
Raw Story: “So now you are running…”
Harry Dunn: “I know. What the hell am I thinking, right?”
RS: “Exactly! You’ve looked at all these politicians from the other side and, to now to be running — how's that change feel?”
HD: “Maybe ‘inspire’ is the right word. I've been up close and personal with them every day of my life for the last 15-plus years, and I feel like I see what they're doing and I'd say, ‘I could do it a little better’ – or not necessarily better but different or more effective. I've watched them. I've heard the things that they said, specifically the MAGA faction of the Republican Party that has kind of downplayed everything since January 6. Now, obviously, Jan. 6 was the catalyst that brought me to this point, but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things.”
RS: “Even before we jump into January 6, just seeing lawmakers every day, you kind of get a takeaway, like, ‘oh, wait, they're just humans.’”
HD: “I love that part of it, man. Because that's what public servants, to me, are supposed to be: just people – average people that aren't on a pedestal. But my job is to give a voice to the members of the community that I represent, and that's what your job is as an elected official. Your job is to represent those people, and you should be an everyday American because that's what the government should be made up of.”
RS: “Now to get to January 6, especially this year with the anniversary, it just had a different feeling at the Capitol, almost like it never happened.”
HD: “Because that's what Donald Trump wanted. Everything that Donald Trump has said — slowly but surely it starts trickling down into Congress. Everything that Donald Trump has said they are saying – ‘they’ meaning the subordinates of him in Congress parroting his talking points – and that's not how Congress is supposed to work.”
RS: “You'd expect it more – I'd expect it more from someone like MTG – but how is it watching…”
HD: “Do I expect more? At the Capitol, we would see these individuals every day so maybe we expect more from the position that they hold but not necessarily the person. Like, I don't expect more from Donald Trump, I expect more from the presidency. And that's how I was able to do my job. I was able to separate that, the institution of Congress – I marvel at it; I respect it – but a lot of the people that are holding those seats shouldn't be there.”
RS: “I've been with MTG to the D.C. jail for her to advocate for J6 prisoners, and it's been a part of her rhetoric. But now to hear Elise Stefanik – who’s been in Republican leadership – say, ‘January 6 hostages,’ that's new.”
HD: “So what is Elise Stefanik right now? She’s vying for a VP nod, right? So it's anything to stay in Trump's graces. We've seen it all the way from the beginning of January 6 with Kevin McCarthy when later that night he went on the floor and condemned Donald Trump. Few days later, he’s down at Mar-a-Lago changing his tune, right? [Sen.] Lindsey Graham, same thing with him. Elise Stefanik. The list goes on and on and on. He has that much of a hold over the people that it's dangerous and very counterproductive in Congress.”
RS: “We see Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party, how would it be serving with those folks?”
HD: “The same way it was for me protecting them. This isn't just something that I'll have to get used to being able to see them and say ‘hi’ to them every day. I did that January 7th – the day we went back after the attack at the Capitol, because I revere the institution. I hold it in high regard. I think the world of it, and I expect great things to come from Congress. The fact that we haven't been able to doesn't mean that we shouldn't still strive to get greatness out of it.”
RS: “Have you been surprised watching the rhetoric of MTG and that faction trickle into the leadership?”
HD: “I'm disappointed. I'm not surprised, because Donald Trump has this stranglehold over these individuals. It's very important to acknowledge, though, what Congress is supposed to do. I believe in it, and maybe that's crazy on me for believing in something that hasn't functioned well for a long time.”
RS: “How important is this election just for the legacy of January 6, because it feels very tied to Donald Trump and his future?”
HD: “It's very important, not necessarily for the legacy of it, so to speak. I refuse – win or lose this election – to let the story of January 6 and the narrative go in any other direction than the truth. Hell, that's been my mission since I started speaking out three years ago. But I think what this election will show is how important the threats to free and fair elections are and holding on to our democracy is to people. Donald Trump said it himself that [he] wants to be a dictator on day one. He said that. So I think what the election will show is how many people think that what we have now is worth preserving and worth fighting for it.”
RS: “When you were on the force, what was the reaction from Capitol Police brass – but then your fellow officers – to you speaking out?”
HD: “That was tough to navigate, because Capitol Police officers aren't allowed to give press conferences or speak to the media. So when I spoke, I was speaking as a citizen. I wasn't representing Capitol Police. So it was difficult to navigate, because those things are tied together – the Capitol Police and January 6 – so I was in a tough bind. I never went rogue or anything like that. I was respectful to the department. I said, ‘Listen, this is what I want to do. I'm not here to bash the department. I'm here to get the people responsible and hold them accountable.’ Period. There were a couple head bumps about me speaking out. I respect the Capitol Police leadership, and they were great. And obviously, when you talk about frontline — my co-workers — a lot of them were indifferent. A lot supported me, and said, ‘keep going.’ And there were a few that hated it – you know, ‘I'm making it about me’ – which kind of sucks, but it’s expected. If you look, the FOP [Fraternal Order of Police], the last few times Donald Trump ran, they endorsed him, so there's a lot of police officers that support Donald Trump, even after January 6. So I expected all types of mixed reactions. But I know what I'm doing, I'm standing up for what I believe in.”
RS: “What do you make of seeing law enforcement come around Trump or, more so, seeing Republicans still try to wear the mantle of law enforcement when they threw y'all literally under the bus?”
HD: “Does that make me dislike Donald Trump more or does that make me have to face the sad reality of what our country is? I don't think that necessarily makes me hate Donald Trump even more, I think it makes me have an awakening to, ‘hey, this faction exists, and it's not a small faction – it's a large population of people.’ We have to figure out how to navigate that, because they're here and clearly aren't going anywhere.”
RS: “When it comes to the lead up of January 6, have your questions been answered? For one, on congressional leaders – Pelosi and [Sen. Mitch] McConnell — for the pre-planning. But then also the agencies. Are you sure we can’t have a repeat?”
HD: “I don't believe in any conspiracy that McConnell or Pelosi wanted to see the Capitol attacked. I don't believe that at all. I believe in incompetence, versus it was a setup or some s— like that. Somebody dropped the ball, and they need to be held accountable. I don't know where that is, but somebody did. But I don't believe it was the leadership. I think they trusted people that they put in positions to answer for those things, and those people need to be held accountable.”
RS: “Seeing groups like Moms for Liberty take root on the right, are you worried about — maybe January 6 not repeating itself in a physical assault but them kind of taking root at the local level and trying to really take control of the reins of democracy at voting stations, etc.?”
HD: “We have to realize this faction – this chokehold that Donald Trump has – it's not just limited to members of Congress. It's triggered all the way down to local school board elections, like Moms for Liberty. And that's why it's so important to have truth tellers, individuals that really understand what is at stake right now. Obviously, we all want, in the long run, the same things, but I don't think that a lot of people realize the dire situation and how urgently we need to fight for it right now. Because it is a clear and present threat right now and we have to take it seriously. I left my job early. Meaning, I was there 15-plus years, four years short of being able to collect a full pension, because it's that important to me. It can't wait.”
RS: “How's that been going? Because it's hard for me to think of you as a politician, but, I guess, technically on paper, you are.”
HD: “Don't think of me as one! I’m a public servant. You saw me at the Capitol every day. You saw me interacting with people, ‘how can I help you?’ My job was to help people, and that's what I did. I've been doing that for the last 15 years of my adult life, and that won't change.”
RS: “But now you gotta dial for dollars and stuff like that. How's the campaigning?”
HD: “That sucks. I hate asking people for stuff. It’s difficult, but it's necessary. It's not like I'm raising money and putting it in my pocket. It’s for messaging, and I want to reach as many people as I can. Obviously, to win the election, but, the bigger picture, to educate and inform people of what is at stake right now.”
RS: “I'm from Chicago, which is very much like Baltimore, you got these old political machines. How's it been navigating Maryland Democratic politics?”
HD: “It's a lot to learn, but I've cared about politics, so it's not like, ‘who is the lieutenant governor?’ I'm engaged. Before I'm a candidate, before I'm a police officer, I'm a proud citizen of Maryland – and I have been my whole life – who wants to see the people and the state thrive. So running for office or not, that is always how I felt. But being a player now, so to speak, I don't want to lose the essence of who I am, which is a public servant.”
RS: “You obviously get a lot of focus from January 6, but what are the other things you're running on that you think – especially coming from law enforcement – that you can really bring to the table?”
HD: “Since you said it, let’s talk about that, law enforcement and police reform. There's been a long time where Cory Booker and Tim Scott, two black senators, were working together to create a bill to address police reform of criminal justice reform. They were unable to come to an agreement through a consensus, so the talks stalled and now it's just tabled. But the change can't wait … I've been very vocal about mental health. I think we need to reallocate funding to fight the war on mental health right now and the stigma that is associated with it. We all are struggling in some capacity every single day, and we need to make accessibility to mental health way more accessible … Lower health care costs. Obviously, I agree with the majority of the Democratic principles: the woman's right to choose, common sense gun reform. That's the stuff that I agree on, and those issues fall under the umbrella of democracy to me, because, you know, if Trump is elected back into the White House, do those issues even matter? They’ll be gone just like that.”
RS: “You have a presence, and it's usually a smiley, happy presence at the Capitol, but knowing that you were one of our boys in blue but then if you're wearing a suit and wearing that congressional pin, what signal would that send to the MTGs, the Matt Gaetzes, the Boeberts, the people trying to whitewash January 6th?”
HD: “That I can't be dismissed. It's easy to dismiss me when I was an officer, right? As just some ‘angry liberal plant,’ right? It's easy to dismiss me as that. But actually, I'm your colleague, now, I'm your equal. You can't dismiss me. You have to listen. I can bring an issue to the table and force it to be addressed.”
RS: “What would the lawmakers tell you like, personally off the record, post January 6?”
HD: “Well, the ones that I got to talk to, the ones who would dare talk to me about it – and that’s how bad it was – a lot of those members aren't in Congress anymore. That’s just a symptom of being a truth teller in a Donald Trump Congress, so to speak. It sucks. It’s unfortunate. But you mentioned MTG, I mean, she was a very friendly person. When I saw her on the Hill, she would always wave. She would always say hello. I don't know if she knew who I was, but she would always say hello. So I don't have anything bad to say about her about that.”
RS: “You get that southern nice but then it seems like some of those policies are very harmful but then they're cloaked in this smile. Like, does that worry you?”
HD: “I think it's disingenuous – smiling without even having your pulse on what's going on.”
