D.C. Officer Daniel Hodges testifies against Capitol rioter who 'crushed' him with shield
D.C. police officer Daniel Hodges, who was crushed by the mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, testified against Patrick McCaughey III, one of the rioters charged with assaulting him.
WASHINGTON — A Washington, D.C., police officer who was crushed by a pro-Trump mob in a tunnel leading to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, testified Tuesday against one of the rioters charged with assaulting him.
Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who has spoken publicly about being attacked at the Capitol, including before the Jan. 6 committee, appeared in court Tuesday for the trial of three Capitol defendants: Patrick McCaughey III, Tristan Stevens and David Mehaffie. The case is before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, the only federal judge in Washington who has acquitted a Jan. 6 defendant.
McCaughey, the Justice Department alleged, "threw his body weight" against Hodges and pressed a stolen police shield against him. Citing a video that went viral after the Jan. 6 attack, federal prosecutors wrote in a trial brief that Hodges was "screaming out in pain, crushed between the shield held by defendant McCaughey and the door frame of the Capitol."
D.C. officer who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6: Trump has 'cultlike' control over his supportersJuly 22, 202207:27Hodges, who has said in media appearances that Donald Trump has a "cultlike" control over his supporters, told the court Tuesday that the attack "hurt a great deal" and that McCaughey's actions contributed to his injuries that day.
“It, combined with everything else that was going on, made it difficult to breathe," Hodges said. "Being crushed by the shield and the people behind it … leaving me defenseless, injured.”
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