The FBI released footage of a Jan. 6 insurrectionist being interviewed about his participation in tasering a police officer. The emotional Capitol rioter not only started crying during the interrogation but also told the investigators that Trump told him to come.
Various excerpts of a video featuring Trump supporter Danny Rodriguez have been circulated to the press and online via social media.
In the video, the 39-year-old can be seen talking to two FBI agents about storming the Capitol in efforts to stop the ratification of the 2020 presidential election that would formally ratify Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.
Rodriguez’s attorney claimed he was taken advantage of and manipulated because at the time he was sleep-deprived thanks to an early morning arrest. Judge Amy Berman Jackson is reviewing the video to determine if there’s any merit to Rodriguez’s claim.
In one clip he said that he came to Washington that day at the request of the former president. When one of the agents asked him, “How do we get to January 6th?” He replies, “Trump called us. Trump called us to D.C.”
Rodriguez was then pushed to tell the agents more about this call from the executive.
“If he’s the commander in chief and the leader of our country, and he’s calling for help … I thought he was calling for help,” he whimpers.
He continued to share that he didn’t have an organized plan and was oblivious to what was going to happen at the Capitol. He said part of his motivation was to see the president talk for the first time live, “I’ve never seen him in-person speak, so I wanted to see him speak.”
In the full transcript of the interrogation, it is revealed he overheard that the “supporters” were going to storm the buildings. Rodriguez seemingly took this as his call to duty, and he followed the massive and belligerent crowd to the Capitol.
The most popular clip, ironically, is not about him saying that Trump told him to come to D.C. It is of him crying about using a stun gun on Washington Officer Mike Fanone.
Rodriguez states, “What do you want me to tell you that I tased him? Yes.”
As the agent asks him to explain, the California native said, “What … that I am a f–king piece of s–t?”
“Why did you tase him?”
“I don’t know. I’m a piece of s–t,” the man who tased the officer in the side of his neck, causing him to have a heart attack and almost die, sobbed. “I don’t know. He’s a human being with children and he’s not a bad guy.”
“He was just doing his job.”
Different videos show him crying about how stupid it was for him to think he was doing the work of a patriot and helping to save the republic after an election was “stolen.”
Rodriguez said, “We felt that they stole the election. … We felt that they stole this country, that it’s gone, it’s wiped out. America’s over. … It’s very stupid and ignorant, and I see that it’s a big joke, that we thought that we thought that we were going to save this country.”
“We thought we were … part of a bigger thing. We thought we were being used as a part of a plan to save the country, to save America, save The Constitution, and the election, the integrity.”
“I’m so stupid. I thought I was going to be awesome. I thought I was a good guy.”
One of the FBI agents told Rodriguez he’s facing seven federal felony charges and could spend “a lot of years” in prison.
Rodriguez pleaded not guilty and is pushing for his statements to the FBI to be inadmissible.
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