WASHINGTON — Two years ago, a mob of rioters who believed former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election attacked police, beat up widows, stormed an office, overturned a giant conference table and barricaded themselves inside the US Capitol, bracing themselves for a battle with police inside a suite of “refuge” offices for US senators.
One of the offices, federal prosecutors recently revealed, belonged to Republican Jim Risch, 79, the junior senator from Idaho, where Trump is hugely popular.
Video Shows a rioter – who has pleaded guilty to firing a stun gun at a police officer’s neck, nearly killing him – in an attempt to let rioters into the building and risque’s window overlooking the Washington Monument and the National Mall broke. Additional videos released this week show Risch’s trashed desk, with what looks like a framed campaign image bearing his last name.
A review of Risk’s public statements on January 6, 2021, gives no indication that he ever mentioned what happened in his office that day. Asked this week by NBC News about his office being trashed and new footage of rioters at his hideout, Risch demurred.
“I don’t do interviews on January 6th, but thanks,” Risch said.
Asked again if he had a reaction to the newly released footage, the senator said only: “Thanks for asking.”
His office did not respond to a follow-up email seeking comment on the raid on his hideout office by pro-Trump rioters.
On the evening of January 6, after rioters were forced out of the Capitol, Risch voted to certify the victory of President Joe Biden and condemned the attack as an “unconscionable and un-American extreme”.
He said in a statement that evening: “We are grateful to the law enforcement officers who put themselves in harm’s way and kept those who work at the Capitol safe today. I look forward to joining my colleagues and proving that at the Capitol tonight.” Proud to say that the crowd never rules.
Earlier that day, video shows, a remarkable and disturbing scene unfolded inside three rooms: ST2M, ST4M and ST6M, part of a two-level suite of offices overlooking the western terrace. The rioters entered the mezzanine level through a window after fighting their way onto a stage set up for Biden’s inauguration. In a recent case an FBI affidavit revealed that the office, ST4M, was “assigned to Senator James Risch on January 6, 2021.”
Daniel “DJ” Rodriguez, in other January 6 footage, points a stun gun at the neck of Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone, in new video seen inside an office suite as first responders rush Fanone to his senses Hospital after getting lost.
Realizing that rioters were inside the building, officers who had been fighting in a nearby tunnel where some of the most violent scenes of January 6 had taken place rushed to the door that led to the office suite and took whatever belongings they could find. Gone, blocked him. Recently released body camera footage shows rioters making a new entry point into the Capitol.
In his accepted statement of the crime, Rodriguez stated that he used several objects to try to break the window of the risque before telling the other rioters that he had used a stun gun on Fanon’s neck. Was.
“Omg I did so much f—ing s—rn and let you know later,” Rodriguez wrote in the Patriots 45 MAGA Gang Telegram group after leaving Risk’s office. “F Tazzed—out of the blue.”
New video featuring Risch’s office was introduced into evidence in the case against Ed Badalion, one of Rodriguez’s co-defendants, who presented his case in a bench trial before US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Had a hearing.
Gina Bisignano, another Capitol riot defendant who testified in the case as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, said under oath that rioters defecated in one of Risch’s adjacent offices on January 6. .
Many in the Republican Party have been hesitant to speak clearly and candidly about what happened at the Capitol on January 6th. After Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired misleadingly edited footage that made the Capitol attack seem less serious, some Senate Republicans condemned the false portrayal.
Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said, “I think it is a crime to break glass windows and doors to enter the United States Capitol against police precincts.” “I think especially when you come into chambers, when you start opening members’ desks, when you’re standing on their balconies — somehow putting it in the same category as, you know, peaceful protest.” Permission is just a lie.”
