Jan 6 conspiracy charges

What else do we know about Rodriguez?

Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, the Donald Trump fanatic who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and was arrested for electroshocking D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Mike Fanone a month after he was identified in a HuffPost story, spilled his guts to the FBI after his arrest, repeatedly crying as he told special agents he was a “fucking piece of shit” and worried that his “mom’s going to find out” what he did.

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Rodriguez, according to a transcript of his FBI interview filed in court by his defense attorney on Friday, said that he became radicalized watching videos on InfoWars and from conservative commentators [...]. Rodriguez repeatedly referred to himself as “stupid” for believing that the pro-Trump mob he was a part of could take over the U.S. Capitol and install Trump as president for a second term.

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Rodriguez told the FBI that he “volunteered for Trump” and “did door-to-door and everything” for Trump’s campaign, and said he wanted to join the Army once Trump became president, and even went to the recruiting office.

“They didn’t take me. And I just thought that I could still contribute by ― you know, I didn’t take an oath, but I could still stand up for those same things on my own, you know?” Rodriguez said.

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“They made sure that the election was lost and there’s no point in voting anymore, so it’s like ― I’m thinking they’re going to come, like, you know ― they’re going to come round us up.”

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In a separate motion, his lawyers said they would argue that Rodriguez was acting “under public authority” at the direction of former President Trump.

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[R]oughly 650 cases [...] have been brought against rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. There are more than 2,500 total potential defendants, including over 250 suspects who assaulted police officers on Jan. 6 but have not yet been arrested.

  Huffpo

Trial dates are on the calendar in at least 17 cases related to the attack on the Capitol, including a multi-defendant conspiracy case against members of the Oath Keepers extremist group, according to BuzzFeed News’ review of court records. The latter half of the year was marked by a flurry of guilty pleas — nearly 150 defendants have taken a deal with the government so far — but developments in [some cases] highlight the fact that other defendants have dug in for a fight.

Most defendants are being prosecuted individually instead of en masse. Whichever cases have reached a milestone first — from pretrial detention orders to plea hearings and sentencings — have provided a model for judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers across these cases to build on, even if the case-specific facts and allegations are different. The same will be true of whichever cases are the first to go to trial.

  Yahoo

UPDATE:

“They take a Danny Rodriguez interview, and they see that oh, this guy’s a moron. He’s a sad person who’s kind of pathetic in a way, and they think, ‘How bad could Jan. 6 really have been?’” Fanone said. “They’re not looking at the big picture. This was an orchestrated event. Despite the fact that most of the people on the ground are buffoons, so what? There are 15,000 of them.”

Fanone said Rodriguez’s confession video is also an example of how Trump supporters were “manipulated” by the former president’s lies about a stolen election.

“I hold no fucking grudges towards him whatsoever, because in Danny Rodriguez, I see a lot of people that I know,” Fanone told HuffPost. “He’s a moron and a misfit, and he was like many people looking for camaraderie, looking for something to belong to.”

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“I want accountability for Danny Rodriguez. Not just for what he did to Michael Fanone, but for what he did to Officer Michael Fanone,” Fanone said. “He was attacking a police officer who was protecting the Capitol and trying to protect members of Congress and democracy, and he came there to subvert that on behalf of Donald Trump.”

  HuffPo