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Thursday 11 February 2021

'They're using munitions against US.' Chilling bodycam footage and audio of cops battling MAGA mob is revealed at Donald Trump's impeachment trial

 Dramatic footage and audio from police officers' perspectives shows the MAGA mob spraying and hitting law enforcement as they try to get into the Capitol Building during the January 6 attack.

Impeachment manager, Rep. Eric Swalwell, walked U.S. senators through officers' communications, as the Democrats try to sway the U.S. Senate to convict President Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection.

'The crowd is using munitions against us,' an officer in an audio clip said. 'They have bear spray in the crowd. Bear spray in the crowd.' 


Democratic House impeachment managers played new footage including a bodycam clip that showed 'the mob attacking officers with a crutch, a hockey stick, a bullhorn and a Trump flag,' according to Rep. Eric Swalwell

Democratic House impeachment managers played new footage including a bodycam clip that showed 'the mob attacking officers with a crutch, a hockey stick, a bullhorn and a Trump flag,' according to Rep. Eric Swalwell 

Swalwell talked about the 'hand-to-hand combat' the officers were forced to engage in, speaking of their 'extraordinary bravery.' 


At the top of his presentation he said, 'I want to warn you that the following audio and video is graphic and unsettling.'   

In a second audio clip that Swalwell played senators could hear the voice of a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer shouting, 'We have been flanked and we lost the line,' yelling out the code that an officer needed assistance.  

Videos then showed officers being sprayed in the face.    

'In this new security video, you can see the mob attacking officers with a crutch, a hockey stick, a bullhorn and a Trump flag,' Swalwell said, before rolling footage from the same moments from two perspectives, including from an officer's bodycam.

The California Democrat noted that this footage was taken two hours after the initial Capitol break-in. 

'The attack on police that afternoon was constant,' Swalwell said.    

D.C. Police Mike Fanone, Swalwell continued, was one of three police officers that the mob grabbed and dragged down the Capitol Building's stairs. Fanone was tased, which triggered a heart attack, Swalwell revealed.

'It was a medieval battle scene, it was some of the most brutal combat I've ever encountered,' Fanone said in a video clip, recalling the experience. 

Swalwell paid homage to the three officers who died, Brian Sicknick, who perished from his injuries and officers Howard Liebengood and Jeffery Smith, who took their lives. He noted that another 140 police officers had been injured. 

The impeachment manager blasted the rioters for crushing trapping and crushing Officer Daniel Hodges between two doors.        

'I'm sorry I have to show you the next video,' Swalwell said at the conclusion of his presentation.


He then rolled the footage, that had previously gone viral, of Officer Hodges being crushed in the Capitol's door.     

A number of U.S. senators in the audience were clearly moved by the footage. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the clips 'gut wrenching' during Wednesday's dinner break. ' 

'I don't think many of us feel like eating dinner,' the New York Democrat noted. 

Top Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, suggested officers should have used more force.

'Well, I just can't believe that we could lose the Capitol like that. I got mad. I mean these police officers had every right to use deadly force, they should have used it,' Graham told the Capitol Hill pool. 'The people in charge of securing the Capitol left the country.' 

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