Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn is among those paying attention to the progression of investigations into the Capitol riot. When that violence unfolded at the Capitol in January, Dunn was among the law enforcement personnel working to defend the premises — and the people inside — from the rampaging mob. Earlier this year, Dunn was one of four local officers who participated in that defense of the Capitol and who spoke at a public hearing held by the House committee investigating the riot, where Dunn shared details of the at times violently racist abuse that non-white officers suffered amid the riot — and where Dunn called out Trump. This week, he called out Trump once more.
During that original hearing, Dunn compared the actions of those at the Capitol on that fateful day to the actions of a hitman. As he noted at the time, killers-for-hire aren’t the only ones who face legal repercussions when they’re apprehended — the people who hired them also face consequences. In the case of the Capitol riot, members of the mob were there under the direct inspiration of lies from Trump and others about the integrity of the presidential election. On Twitter this week, Dunn shared the following:
‘If a hitman is hired, and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail. But not only does the hitman go to jail, the person who hired them does.’
"If a hitman is hired, and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail. But not only does the hitman go to jail, the person who hired them does,"
— Harry A Dunn (@libradunn) October 7, 2021
The context for Dunn’s comments was clear. In his original remarks during that hearing earlier this year, Dunn commented as follows, addressing members of the committee investigating the riot:
‘If a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail. But not only does the hitman go to jail, the person who hired them does… There was an attack carried out on January 6. And a hitman sent them. I want you to get to the bottom of that.’
Dunn also shared at the time how fellow non-white officers had shared with him how they faced racist threats from the rioters. In part, he said as follows:
‘Yet another Black officer later told me, he had been confronted by insurrectionists in the Capitol who told him, “Put your gun down, and we’ll show you what kind of n*gger you really are.”.. [Later], I sat down on a bench in the rotunda with a friend of mine who is also a Black Capitol police officer and told him about the racial slurs I endured. I became very emotional and began yelling, “How the blank could something like this happen. Is this America?”‘
During that hearing, committee member Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) insisted upon the importance of uncovering what Trump was doing in connection to the riot, saying that investigators “must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House — every phone call, every conversation, every meeting — leading up to, during, and after the attack.” The committee has made good on that in the time since with subpoenas, document requests, and more, and the investigation is continuing.
