Jan. 6 rioters, Capitol police, Donald Trump: Where are they now?
WASHINGTON – On January 6, 2021, a group of violent rioters, stoked by Donald Trump’s refusal to accept his recent defeat, stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, delaying the ceremonial Electoral College vote count.
Now, Congress is set to convene Monday to carry out the same routine constitutional process and certify Trump’s 2024 win.
From the rioters who breached the Capitol building to the lawmakers trapped inside, from Trump-world turncoats, to the now president-elect himself, many who joined or were caught up in the riot are still living with fallout from the January 6 of four years ago.
187 minutes: What Trump did while out of view on Jan. 6 as aides urged him to act
Some have written books about their experiences. Others upended their political beliefs. Four people died that day and more than 140 police were injured.
“Everything that I've done since January 6 is all because of January 6,” Harry Dunn, a former police officer who defended lawmakers against the attack, told USA TODAY.
More: How a raging mob took over the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021
Capitol police officer turns public figure
Dunn served as a Capitol police officer for over a decade, before resigning in December 2023. He then ran for Congress from Maryland, losing in the Democratic primary.
He is one of many officers who have shared their trauma publicly, including at congressional hearings, and cautioned against reelecting Trump.
“I believe we did all that we could do. I know I did. I use a football analogy: I left it all on the field,” Dunn said.
"I'm not one to say mine is greater than the will of the American people, but I kind of accept that this is the country that we live in, one that accepts that type of behavior,” Dunn said, reflecting on Trump's 2024 victory.
Dunn, who wrote a memoir, “Standing My Ground,” said that day four years ago changed everything for him.
“I honestly wish that I still was a police officer. If January 6 didn't happen, I would still be a cop. I'd still be at the U.S. Capitol protecting and serving my country,” he said.
Though he lost in the primary to Representative-elect Sarah Elfreth, Dunn said he is not done using his voice. “I felt like I just left my mark, I did what I can do as a police officer, and now it's off to the next calling or challenge, which is preserving democracy.”
Rioters jailed, including ‘QAnon Shaman’
More than a thousand defendants have been charged and sentenced in relation to the Capitol riot
Jacob Chansley, dubbed the “QAnon Shaman” and often portrayed as the face of the January 6 attack with his horned headdress and American flag face paint, received one of the longest sentences of any Capitol rioter.
After pleading guilty to a felony obstruction charge in September 2021, Chansley was sentenced to 41 months in prison. He was released a few months early in March 2023.
"The hardest part of all of this is, I know I am to blame," Chalnsley, who also goes by the name Jacob Angeli, told the court.
As of last May, Chansley was living with his mother while under supervised release, according to a motion filed by his lawyer at that time. In August, a federal judge ordered prosecutors to return Chansley's now-iconic headdress and and spear.
Despite his 2021 guilty plea, in a Dec. 30 podcast interview with the Rand Paul Review, Chansley suggested the rioters were manipulated. "What you see is the fingerprints of the deep state all over this thing," he said.
William Shipley, an attorney for Chansley, did not return requests for comment.
Not an insurrection, congressman says
Rep. Andrew Clyde raised hackles less than five months after the riot when he told a House hearing that "it was not an insurrection, and we can't call it that and be truthful."
While Clyde readily agreed that "rioters" and a "disorderly mob" had breached the Capitol ? he helped barricade the doors to the House chamber ? the Georgia Republican said others who entered the building were well-behaved and even respectful.
"If you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit," he said.
That brought a rebuke from then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose office was invaded that day by a man carrying a stun gun: "It was beyond denial," she said. "It fell into the range of sick."
Clyde has expressed concern for the civil rights of January 6 defendants held in a Washington, DC, jail while awaiting trial or plea agreements on misdemeanor charges, and last June he celebrated a Supreme Court ruling that could undo a felony obstruction charge applied to hundreds of riot defendants.
The ruling was a "tremendous victory," he wrote in a social media post.
A spokeswoman for Clyde, who trounced his Democratic challenger in November, didn't immediately return a request for comment.
Convicted rioter turns Dem spokesperson
Pamela Hemphill, 71, pled guilty and served time for her part in the Capitol attack. Since then, she has publicly denounced Trump, cast a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and called January 6, 2021, “the worst day in our history."
Hemphill had voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, attracted to his aggressive rhetoric on immigration and encouraged by her mostly Republican-supporting family. The Idaho native attended Trump’s "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington four years ago and entered the Capitol alongside other MAGA supporters.
She was given two months in jail, 36 months of probation and a $500 fine for one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol building.
“It’s like a scar that I have to carry for the rest of my life,” Hemphill said in August.
Following Trump’s win in 2024, Hemphill said she was “extremely depressed” but is committed to opposing him as a speaker for the Democratic party.
"My goal is to go to every state and share my story and how I got out of the MAGA cult, and what we can do to move forward and resist the MAGA cult,” Hemphill told USA TODAY.
Former Trump staffers turn critics
January 6, 2021, roiled Trump world too, with some members of the Trump White House jumping ship in the aftermath.
Among those MAGA turncoats were former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin and former aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
Hutchinson was a star witness for the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, after her bombshell testimony in June 2022 alleging that Trump knew about the threat of violence that day and attempted to join the mob of supporters at the Capitol.
Author of her own January 6 memoir, “Enough,” Hutchinson has continued to speak out against Trump in interviews and public appearances.
She and fellow conservative Farah Griffin said they would be casting their vote for Harris in 2024.
Farah Griffin has made a platform for herself as a co-host of the talk show “The View” and a political commentator for CNN.
Donald Trump: Comeback king
Fortunes have truly reversed for former president turned President-elect Trump.
Four years ago on January 6, Trump was a lame duck with weeks left of his presidency, clinging to baseless claims of voter fraud.
Now, Trump is poised to return to the Oval Office with a decisive win under his belt and a Republican controlled Congress at his side. Federal charges that he illegally tried to overturn his 2020 loss have been dismissed. An election conspiracy case in Georgia is on the rocks.
“We made history for a reason tonight and the reason is going to be just that, we overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible,” Trump said in his November victory speech. “And it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing."
"Look what happened. Is this crazy?”
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The cast of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot: Where are they now?