A California man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to using a stun gun to attack a Washington, D.C., police officer who was brutally injured while trying to defend the U.S. Capitol from the angry mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.

Daniel Rodriguez, 40, of Fontana, admitted to taking part in the violent assault on former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone after another rioter dragged the officer into the crowd outside the tunnel where police were trying to beat back the mob. Fanone, who at one point lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack, was heard on camera screaming that he has kids in a desperate appeal for his life as other rioters beat him.

Rodriguez’s guilty plea comes about two weeks before jury selection was supposed to begin in his trial in Washington’s federal court. He pleaded guilty in Washington’s federal court to four felony charges including conspiracy and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

An email seeking comment was sent to his lawyers on Tuesday. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in May. Federal sentencing guidelines call for about seven to 10 years in prison, according to court papers.

Rodriguez admitted in an interview with FBI agents after his arrest in March 2021 that he drove a stun gun into Fanone’s neck. Rodriguez told agents that he had believed that he was doing the “right thing” on Jan. 6 and that he had been prepared to die to “save the country.” He cried as he spoke to the agents, saying he was “stupid” and ashamed by his actions.

Rodriguez’s attorneys had tried unsuccessfully to block prosecutors from using his FBI interview at trial, arguing that the agents used “psychologically coercive tactics” to get him to talk.

Authorities say Rodriguez and others were part of a Telegram group chat called “PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang” in the run-up to Jan. 6 in which they advocated violence and discussed what they viewed as a stolen election. In one post on Dec. 29, 2020, Rodriguez wrote in the chat: “Congress can hang. I’ll do it. Please let us get these people dear God,” according to charging papers.

At the Capitol, Rodriguez was part of the mob that pushed into the tunnel where officers were trying to fend off the rioters, prosecutors said. Inside the tunnel, another rioter handed him the stun gun that he would later apply to the back of Fanone’s neck, according to court papers. After assaulting Fanone, Rodriguez entered the Capitol through a broken window. Later, he texted his friends: “Tazzed the (expletive) out of the blue,” they said.

Others charged with assaulting Fanone include Albuquerque Cosper Head, who wrapped his arms around Fanone’s neck and dragged him into the crowd outside the tunnel. Head restrained Fanone while other rioters attacked him. Head was sentenced in October to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to an assault charge.

Fanone said at Head’s sentencing that he suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury and that his injuries ultimately cost him his career. He has written a book about his Jan. 6 experience and testified at a hearing held by the House committee investigating the insurrection.

Another man, Kyle Young, who helped in the sustained assault on the officer, was sentenced in September to seven years and two months in prison. Young grabbed the officer by the wrist while others yelled, “Kill him!” and “Get his gun!”

They are among the longest sentences that have been handed down so far in the riot.

Nearly 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot. More than 500 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Approximately 400 have been sentenced, with over half getting terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years.

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After months of denying culpability and insisting he was the target of a politically motivated prosecution, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R- Alpine, pleaded guilty on December 3, 2019 to a federal charge of conspiracy to misuse campaign funds for personal use.
Hunter, whose congressional district includes southwestern Riverside County, faces a possible five-year prison term and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced March 17.
Following the short change-of-plea hearing at San Diego federal court, Hunter made a brief statement to reporters, saying, “I failed to monitor and account for my campaign spending. I made mistakes and that was what today was all about.”

The congressman said in a television interview Monday that he was taking the plea deal for the sake of his three children. His wife, his former campaign treasurer, previously admitted her role in the campaign finance scandal.

Hunter, who had planned to seek another term in the November 2020 election, also indicated in the interview with KUSI that he would step down, while stressing that it’s important to keep the seat in Republican hands. Hunter said his office “would remain open” and that there would be a “seamless transition to whoever takes this seat next.”
The 42-year-old former Marine was indicted along with his wife on five dozen criminal counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy and falsification of records, and was facing a Jan. 22 trial date.

Margaret Hunter, 44, pleaded guilty in June to a conspiracy charge and agreed to work with prosecutors on the case. She faces up to five years in federal custody and a fine of up to $250,000 when she is sentenced in April. Hunter told KUSI that while he expects to spend time in custody, he hopes that his wife will not be incarcerated as “I think my kids need a mom in the home.” Prosecutors said Hunter and his wife went on expensive family trips and made scores of other improper personal purchases over the course of six years. Supposedly campaign-related events were planned around their family vacations in order to justify the expenses, prosecutors said.

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It was also alleged that Hunter used campaign funds to pursue extramarital affairs and repeatedly used campaign credit cards or sought reimbursement for expenses that included resort hotel rooms, airfare, a skiing trip and Uber rides to and from the homes of five women with whom he had “intimate relationships.”

“This is a sad day for the city of San Diego,” prosecutor Phillip Halpern told reporters while detailing Hunter’s accomplishments in politics and the military. “It is for this reason that the government takes little pleasure in today’s announcement. Yet, it is the very foundation of our system of law that no one, no one is above it.” Halpern said the government would seek at least one year in prison for Hunter when he is sentenced.

“Rather than re-election, Mr. Hunter now faces resignation, disgrace and imprisonment,” the prosecutor said. Hunter had repeatedly maintained his innocence and accused the U.S. Attorney’s Office of a politically motivated prosecution. He maintained that two prosecutors on the case attended a La Jolla campaign event for then- Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in 2015, then indicted him two months before the 2018 election due to his public endorsement of Donald Trump.

Hunter was re-elected last November with 51.7% of the vote in the 50^th Congressional District, despite being indicted three months prior. He was first elected in 2008, succeeding his father, who held the congressional seat for 28 years.

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