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Harry Dunn is a former Capitol Police officer, who guarded then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and other parts of the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot. He has been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Citizens Medal.
During the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol to stop the counting of the electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election, Maine Sen. Susan Collins was forced to flee the U.S. Senate to a secure location when the rioters breached the Capitol. I was fighting outside to keep the rioters at bay and defend the Capitol as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police. At the end of the day, my fists were bloodied, but Collins and other members of Congress were able to resume their constitutional duties and finalize the electoral count.
The bond that members of the Capitol Police share with Collins from our terrible experiences is real. Now, we need her to fight for us since President Donald Trump has nominated a prominent Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist, Kash Patel, to lead the nation’s top law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While Trump appears to be betting that Collins has a short memory by nominating Patel, I believe Mainers know better.
Following the Capitol attack, Collins said she was “saddened and outraged,” but she “felt a sense of pride that the Congress had not been intimidated.”
Unfortunately, Patel has been a cheerleader in the attempt to whitewash Jan. 6, even going so far as to call it a “free speech movement.” He even started a nonprofit organization called the Kash Foundation, which raised funds to support some of the Jan. 6 rioters.
More than a dozen Mainers pleaded guilty or were convicted for their roles in the Capitol attack, and they were among the more than 1,500 individuals that Trump unconditionally pardoned for their roles in the Capitol attacks. In issuing blanket pardons, Trump pardoned hardcore violent criminals, many of whom were serving multi-year sentences for assaulting me and my fellow law enforcement officers.
During confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month, Patel was questioned repeatedly about his past record that seemed to prioritize criminals over law enforcement, such as his involvement with the Jan. 6 prison choir. In media appearances, Patel claimed credit for producing a song featuring the voices of jailed violent offenders, before trying to disavow involvement under questioning from senators.
Patel was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but he used his position as a staffer at the Pentagon to spread baseless conspiracy theories, including about the FBI that he is slated to run if the Senate confirms him. Patel publicly blamed the FBI for “intentional” mistakes on Jan. 6. “Why didn’t the FBI put a thousand uniformed agents around the Capitol? These are the mistakes intentional or otherwise that led to January 6th,” Patel said. He never mentions that this was Trump’s FBI.
Patel told the Senate under oath that “there will be no retributive actions taken by any FBI” if he was confirmed, but the next day the Department of Justice purged leadership of many important field offices across the country and announced an investigation into more than 5,000 officers involved in Jan. 6 investigations. Backing the blue means supporting officers in their upholding the law, not politicizing their orders years later.
I’ve never worked with Patel, but I trust the judgment of many others who have worked closely with him. Trump’s own attorney general during his last term, Bill Barr, recognized that Patel was unqualified to work at the FBI. He said that someone like Patel without background as an agent would “never be able to command the respect necessary” to lead the bureau. When Trump, in his first term, wanted to install Patel as the deputy director of the FBI, Attorney General Barr threatened to resign if Trump made such a move claiming it would happen “over my dead body.”
The truth is leading the FBI requires significant experience and commitment to the rule of law. The FBI has more than 38,000 employees throughout the United States. They investigate homicides, missing persons and cyber crime, but their effects are felt locally as well.
In Maine, the Portland regional office of the FBI fights transnational crime like the Chinese criminals allegedly illegally growing marijuana in rural Maine. The FBI is partnering with Maine law enforcement on the New England Prescription Opioid Task Force to combat drug abuse. These are the priorities that I think Collins should want our next FBI director to work on.
When it comes to the fair and impartial administration of justice in America, our FBI can’t make things up or rewrite the history of Jan. 6. Collins has not been afraid to take tough stands on behalf of Maine and our nation. We are counting on her to do it again and reject the extreme record of Kash Patel.
