'Trump sent us': Capitol police officer recounts Jan. 6 rioters' clear message

published 27 July 2021

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the United States Capitol Police testified during the opening Jan. 6 select committee hearing on Tuesday that "nobody else" but former President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol that day.

In response to a question from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Gonell, who was on the front lines, said the rioters made it clear they felt Trump had given the green light to breach the building and disrupt Congress' Electoral College certification. "All of them were telling us 'Trump sent us,'" he said.

While there have been conspiratorial claims stating that at least some members of the crowd were Antifa or even undercover FBI agents, Gonell dismissed that idea and suggested Trump was primarily responsible for the events that unfolded. "Nobody else, there was nobody else," he testified. "It was not Antifa. It was not Black Lives Matter. It was not the FBI. It was [Trump's] supporters that he sent ... over to the Capitol that day."

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.