Opinion: I defended the Capitol from Trump’s mob. I know he’s an insurrectionist.

When I received my acceptance letter almost a decade ago to the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., my imagination raced with the intense, life-or-death scenarios I would be confronted with on a regular basis in order to protect and serve the residents of our nation’s capital.

But even while contemplating such scenarios, I never imagined what I experienced on Jan. 6, 2021, or that I would be one of a few dozen officers standing in between former President Donald Trump’s authoritarian dreams and American democracy. The attack on the Capitol, perpetuated by a mob commanded by Trump, was and still is an existential threat to both my city and the country at large.

The world looked on in horror as thousands of Trump’s most loyal followers overran police barricades, stripped law enforcement officers of our equipment and savagely beat us. They looked us in the eyes and called us — the ones protecting the Capitol — traitors.

The violent mob eventually gained access to the Capitol and roamed its storied halls with weapons and zip ties, evidently looking for members of Congress to kidnap, torture or kill, while our elected representatives and their staffs fled or sheltered in place, barricading their office doors, praying for safety from the fires of insurgency that some of them helped (and continue to help) spread.

As my colleagues and I healed from the injuries we sustained, I burned with the need for answers about what happened that day — and with the desire to hold those who incited the insurrection accountable for their actions.

I promised myself to speak up about what I experienced Jan. 6, and I kept my word. I was honored to sit before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and detail the horrors I saw, setting the tone for the committee’s investigation to follow.

In August 2022, I provided witness testimony and body camera footage in a civil trial brought by three New Mexico residents to remove Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, the founder of Cowboys for Trump, from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I watched as he gleefully recounted his time at the insurrection, joining a mob of rioters who chanted “Heave! Ho!” as they tried to enter the tunnel into the Capitol building. Those were the same rioters who crushed me with my police shield, who ripped my helmet and gas mask off. My testimony helped Judge Francis Mathew reach the conclusion that Jan. 6 was an insurrection and to remove Griffin from office. The Supreme Court just upheld this decision.

I was also proud to serve as a witness in the case brought by a group of Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado last year to remove Trump himself from the ballot under Section 3 due to his role in instigating the insurrection. To me, it was clear that Trump assembled and directed a violent mob to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Every time I testified about my experience on Jan. 6, I stuck to the gruesome facts about that day in an attempt to prevent my words and intentions from being twisted to anything other than what they were: an attempt to hold insurrectionists like Donald Trump accountable. I spoke about how the mob was organized, arrived prepared for violence and fanatically devoted to Trump. They wore tactical gear while robbing me of mine. They tried to gouge out my eye, bash in my skull with my own baton and crush me against the Capitol itself.

I defended the Capitol, with blood dripping from my mouth, until I could no longer. It was clear the mob that Trump assembled and directed forcibly attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

In Colorado, Trump’s attorneys cross-examined me, but not once did they address the violence I recounted. Instead, they tried to discredit my testimony, despite my body camera footage proving otherwise. Notably, however, Trump’s lawyers didn’t even attempt to defend Trump’s insurrectionist efforts. There was no question as to who had sparked that violence, nor who had the absolute power to end it: Donald Trump.

Every step of the way, Trump received due process , with ample opportunities to present his case. And yet neither his own counsel nor any judge on the district, state or federal level has disputed that Trump engaged in insurrection against the United States. The Supreme Court did not exonerate Trump for his role in the insurrection, nor did it dismiss the ruling that he is an insurrectionist.

Neither the injustice and rage I feel from that day, nor the threats I continue to receive to this day, will ever stop me from telling those who need to hear it what really happened on Jan. 6: For the first time in American history, a sitting president attempted to thwart the will of the people. The events of Jan. 6, 2021, shook the foundations of America’s democratic tradition. No longer can we pretend that “American exceptionalism” renders us immune from the violent coups we’ve seen in other countries throughout history.

To some, I am “just a cop,” but I don’t have to be a constitutional lawyer to know this: If someone has already tried to subvert a free and fair election once, we should not let him try again.

Daniel Hodges joined the Metropolitan Police Department in 2014 and continues to work as a police officer. The above solely represents the thoughts and perspectives the author; as a personal viewpoint, it does not represent any official position of the Metropolitan Police Department or the District of Columbia government, its employees or affiliates.

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