Michael Fanone, the Washington, D.C., police officer whose life was upended by the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol, now needs financial help, according to a fellow police officer.
Harry Dunn, a member of the U.S. Capitol Police, tweeted Tuesday night that Fanone, who was dragged into the mob of Donald Trump supporters and threatened with his own gun, was having trouble.
“Hi, everyone. Mike needs your help… If you can find it in your heart to help him and his family, he would appreciate it. Mike has never been one to mince words, and he put it bluntly. ‘I need some help,’” Dunn tweeted while linking to an online GoFundMe effort.
Around noon Eastern time Wednesday, that effort had drawn almost 7,000 donations and topped its $300,000 goal.
Fanone was part of the city police force mobilized to provide backup to the Capitol Police during the Jan. 6 attack.
While defending a tunnel on the west side of the Capitol, he was dragged by his neck into the crowd and then was beaten, hit with a stun gun and robbed, according to the report produced by the House select committee that investigated the riot.
“Officer Fanone feared they were after his gun. Members of the crowd yelled: ‘Kill him!’ ‘Get his gun!’ and ‘Kill him with his own gun!’” the report said.
Fanone said he survived because he told the mob he had children. Of the people in the crowd who saved him, he said, “I think kind of the conclusion I’ve come to is like, you know, ‘Thank you but fuck you for being there.’”
Fanone has become one of the public faces of the Capitol’s defenders and is known for his sharp criticism of the insurrectionists, Trump and top Republican lawmakers. Before the second anniversary of the attack earlier this month, he spoke at an event held by a group calling on Republicans to denounce political violence.
He also dropped by the House speaker’s office last week while Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was enduring a marathon series of votes to be elected into the role. Fanone pointed to where a plaque with the speaker’s name would usually hang, saying, “I just came here to rub it in.”
Fanone resigned from the D.C. police force in December 2021. He told The Washington Post at the time that he was leaving five years before he was eligible for a pension, partly because he felt his superiors had not supported him
The online fundraising site says Fanone — who has written a book and appeared on CNN as an analyst — has had trouble finding work since leaving the Police Department. It claimed the CNN position was part-time and provided no health care coverage for him or his four children.
“At every job he’s applied for since January 6th, Mike’s been told that, while he is a hero,” the appeal said, “he is ‘too polarizing a figure’ for them to offer him employment.”
