Fanone said a prosecutor with the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. told him Thursday that the FBI had launched an inquiry into the communications he received, after he forwarded a recording of call in which someone told him: “The world would be a better place if you were hit by a fast moving bus tomorrow.”
That call came hours after Fanone, who was beaten and shocked with a stun device until he lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack during the Jan. 6 riot, testified at a sentencing hearing for one his attackers Tuesday in federal court. A judge sentenced Fanone’s assailant to seven years and two months in prison after Fanone told the man, “I hope you suffer.”
Fanone said he forwarded a recording of the menacing call, which came from a number in Delray Beach, Fla., to a federal prosecutor, who texted him: “Ok, got it. I’ll send to FBI. They should be calling you soon.” But after he heard nothing back, he said, he gave The Washington Post a recording of the call and the prosecutor’s text. He said a different prosecutor then called him Thursday to confirm the FBI was investigating the call and other messages he received. A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the open case, confirmed the investigation.
Lira Gallagher, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said the agency “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.” But, she said: “We do take all threats of violence seriously and work with our law enforcement partners to investigate people who make them, including those who seek to harass, intimidate, or retaliate against federal witnesses.”
Fanone, now an on-air contributor to CNN, said he understands the difficulties of investigating such messages, because to substantiate criminal wrongdoing, threats typically need to be specific and overt. Many of the missives that Fanone said he has received wish him harm, or wish him dead — but don’t appear to make specific threats to kill him.
But Fanone said he did not feel authorities took his concerns seriously enough, and that his outspokenness had made him a high-profile target. When he goes out in public, detractors sometimes follow him on city streets.
Fanone said that he was not allowed to use a private entrance to the federal courthouse on Judiciary Square at the recent sentencing hearing. As a witness and victim in ongoing criminal cases, he said, he deserves protection from those who might do him harm.
“I’m a private citizen,” Fanone said. “I have no means of protecting myself.”
Bill Miller, a spokesman with the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to comment. Representatives from the U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security at the federal courthouse, did not respond to a request for comment.
Fanone was among hundreds of D.C. police officers who rushed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to answer a citywide emergency alert, as rioters stormed the building.
The officer’s early interviews with The Post and other media — along with testimony in court and to the House select committee investigating the origins of the attack — have offered one of the most vivid accounts of that day. Fanone’s blunt speaking style and unflinching criticism of Trump, the former president’s supporters who sought to overturn the election and lawmakers who deny or downplay that a violent insurrection occurred, has made him a hero to some, and a…
Read More: FBI investigating menacing calls to ex-D.C. officer Michael Fanone
