A Fontana man who tased a police officer during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and later bragged about it on a group chat admitted Tuesday to multiple criminal charges.
Daniel Rodriguez, 40, during a hearing in a federal courtroom in Washington D.C. pleaded guilty to conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
Shortly after his March 2021 arrest, an apparently-tearful Rodriguez during an FBI interview admitted to tasing Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone, according to a written transcript of the interview that was later filed with the court.
Fanone, during media interviews, has described members of a mob looting his ammunition, police radio and badge and then threatening to kill him as he lay on the steps of the Capital.
Rodriguez repeatedly told the FBI agents “I’m so stupid” during the interview, the transcript shows, and when asked why he assaulted the officer responded by saying “I don’t know, I’m a piece of (expletive). I’m sorry. I don’t know.”
Prosecutors alleged that Rodriguez — along with Edward Badalian of North Hills — created a group chat on the Telegram app called “Patriots 45 MAGA Gang” and used it to advocate violence against “certain groups and individuals” who “supported” the results of the 2020 presidential election and who held “liberal or communist ideologies” or “positions of authority in government.”
Rodriguez was also involved in collecting weapons and tactical gear to bring to Washington D.C. and coordinating with others before, during and after the riot, according to prosecutors.
In his FBI interview, Rodriguez — a former Panorama City resident — described himself as a devoted follower of then-President Donald Trump who came to believe after Trump’s loss that the election had been stolen and the country was on the verge of “civil war.”
On Jan. 6, 2021,…
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