Pelosi stabs old ally Steny Hoyer in the back to endorse J6 ex-cop accused of lying under oath



Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) broke ranks with her longtime colleague, retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), by endorsing a rival candidate over Hoyer's handpicked successor, marking a potential final clash in their complex alliance.

Pelosi and Hoyer first crossed paths as Capitol Hill interns in the 1960s. Hoyer was elected to Congress in 1981 and Pelosi in 1987. By the late 1990s, the two began vying for leadership roles, with Pelosi defeating Hoyer in 2001 to become the House minority whip.

'I’m beyond honored to have her support in this campaign.'

Despite previously heaping praise on Pelosi, Hoyer suggested that he would have won if Pelosi "hadn't been a woman or from California."

"Gender and geography in this case were overwhelming. C'est la guerre,” he said.

In 2006, Pelosi snubbed Hoyer by backing his opponent for majority leader, but Hoyer won despite her lack of support.

Hoyer then spent two decades as one of the highest-ranking House Democrats, second only to Pelosi.

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi announces retirement after nearly 4 decades in Congress

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Hoyer, 86, announced his retirement in January as a representative for Maryland's 5th Congressional District after serving 23 terms. He endorsed his former campaign manager Adrian Boafo as his successor.

Instead of announcing her support for Boafo in the packed congressional race, Pelosi seized the opportunity to use her endorsement to seemingly pay back former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was credited with protecting her on Jan. 6, 2021.

Pelosi announced her endorsement of Dunn on Wednesday, stating, "My friend Harry Dunn is a true American hero and exactly the right person to represent Maryland in Congress."

She claimed that he "bravely defended our democracy from Donald Trump's violent MAGA mob. Since then, Harry's been called to do everything he can to protect Marylanders and all Americans from extremists like Donald Trump."

“Few leaders have done more to defend our democracy and stand up to Donald Trump than Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi,” Dunn stated in reaction to Pelosi’s endorsement. “Her leadership helped deliver historic progress for the American people. I’m beyond honored to have her support in this campaign.”

Pelosi, who has also announced her retirement, will end her term in January 2027. She previously backed Dunn in his failed 2024 congressional run for Maryland's 3rd District.

RELATED: Harry Dunn’s account of January 6 does not add up. At all.

Harry Dunn, Nancy Pelosi. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Dunn gained prominence for his testimony about defending the Capitol on Jan. 6. However, a Blaze News investigation found that Dunn gave false and conflicting statements on the witness stand concerning his interaction with a group of Oath Keepers. His testimony ultimately led to their imprisonment.

Dunn, who has since retired from the U.S. Capitol Police, has used his platform since Jan. 6 to publish a memoir, run for political office, and establish a political action committee named Dunn's Democracy Defenders, which aims to fund Democrat candidates to defeat President Donald Trump, who Dunn has claimed is a threat to democracy.

"The outrageous truth is that Dunn’s lies are easily disprovable by anyone who examines the evidence. Far from the hero he portrays himself to be, when he was not hiding on January 6, 2021, Dunn was needlessly and recklessly screaming at and otherwise confronting protesters who posed no threat to him, violating official protocols and procedures. Other officers repeatedly had to intervene to calm him down," Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker wrote in a 2023 analysis of Dunn's account of Jan. 6.

"It is unfortunate that the media is celebrating the many lies in Dunn’s book, but the real tragedy is that this unstable man’s testimony in a federal trial was instrumental in the conviction and sentencing of several Americans to years in federal prison," Baker added.

Maryland's congressional primary race is scheduled for June 23, and the general election is November 3.

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Controversial assistant chief embroiled in 2010 fraud scandal named acting Capitol Police chief



Sean P. Gallagher, the assistant U.S. Capitol Police chief who became embroiled in a time-card fraud scheme in 2010 and was blamed by a top department commander for disastrous inaction in the USCP Command Center on Jan. 6, has been named acting chief of the department.

The U.S. Capitol Police Board made the appointment as the search begins for a permanent replacement for just-retired Chief J. Thomas Manger. The three-member board includes the House and Senate sergeants at arms and the architect of the Capitol. The police chief serves as a non-voting member.

'Supervisors are held to a lower standard, even when the conduct is criminal.'

Gallagher’s appointment as acting chief will most likely not lead to him being offered the permanent job, according to Capitol Hill sources who spoke with Blaze News on the condition of anonymity. Still, his appointment was described by several police sources as a morale-killer among the rank and file.

Gallagher has drawn fire throughout his nearly 25 years with U.S. Capitol Police, including a felony-level time-cardfraud case that involved him forging the signature of a USCP inspector in order to file bogus overtime claims, internal documents show.

Gallagher was one of the subjects of a scathing Jan. 6 whistleblower letter that alleged that he and the then-chief "simply watched, mostly with their hands in their laps" while officers fought for their lives across Capitol grounds after tens of thousands of protesters surrounded the building.

“It’s the white shirts that are so corrupt,” one source told Blaze News on June 2. “They’re the ones who almost got us killed on January 6.”

Acting Capitol Police Chief Sean Gallagher joined the department in 2001. His tenure has been marred by controversy.Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

The move to place Gallagher in the top spot was most likely intended as a resume pad to help him move on to another law enforcement department or agency, sources said.

Manger, who joined as chief in July 2021 and retired May 30, oversaw massive budget growth in the wake of Jan. 6. He submitted a budget request to the current Congress for nearly $1 billion.

Manger’s final six months in office were marred by high-profile security failures. In January 2025, a man was admitted through the Capitol Visitors Center checkpoint armed with a 9mm handgun hidden in his waistband. The man was later detained after he exited the Library of Congress.

On March 4, a congressional staff member who attempted to bring a loaded handgun through a security checkpoint told Capitol Police that he successfully brought the weapon through security the day before.

Manger blamed the security lapses on “the hardest kind of failure to address: human failure.”

Former Capitol Police Lt. Tarik K. Johnson, who was suspended for nearly 18 months after Jan. 6 by former acting Chief Yogananda Pittman and the Office of Professional Responsibility, said if Gallagher is named permanent chief, the truth about Jan. 6 will never come out.

“If he gets the position permanently, January 6th will go down in history as an insurrection caused by President Trump,” Johnson wrote on X, “as Gallagher will ensure nothing comes out that would disturb the insurrection narrative.”

Johnson was one of the first officials to call out the Jan. 6 inaction of Gallagher and Pittman that he said endangered House and Senate members as the Capitol was overrun. The leadership vacuum in the Command Center delayed evacuations and set up the conditions leading to the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt just outside the Speaker’s Lobby, Johnson has said.

Capitol Police radio transmissions show that Johnson pleaded for permission to evacuate the U.S. Senate just before 1:30 p.m. that day, but was greeted by complete silence from the Command Center. Johnson eventually acted on his own, rushing senators and staff to safety just as an angry crowd moved toward the main Senate entrance.

Johnson’s suspension was officially because he wore a red Make America Great Again ball cap as he moved in and out of the crowds on Jan. 6. Johnson counters that the real reason for his discipline and demotion was that his decisions exposed the failures of senior leaders assigned as area commanders for the Capitol that day.

Gallagher’s appointment is a head-scratcher, sources said, given a checkered history that includes sustained charges of felony-level time-card fraud in 2010 that cost taxpayers at least $10,000.

Overtime fraud discovered

Documents obtained by Blaze News in 2024 showed that Gallagher was recommended for termination for a time-card fraud scheme involving himself and two lieutenants under his command.

According to Rhoda Henderson, a retired USCP sergeant and whistleblower, the other participants in the fraud scheme included Deputy Chief John Erickson and former Lt. Wendy Colmore, who left the department in 2015 for a post in the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms office.

According to Office of Professional Responsibility disciplinary records obtained by Blaze News, Gallagher forged his supervisor’s signature on overtime pay submissions, using a different color pen for the forged signature from the one he used for his own. The fraud scheme was discovered in 2010 and sparked a long investigation.

An OPR memo dated Dec. 18, 2013, recommended Gallagher’s termination “for having defrauded the government of more than $10,000.”

U.S. Capitol Police Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher testifies during the House Committee on Administration Subcommittee on Oversight hearing on March 12, 2024.Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

“The offense is egregious and, absent any mitigating factors, warrants nothing less than termination,” the memo read. “This offense was willful and frequent, occurring on eight occasions. Captain Gallagher misrepresented his times, forged his supervisor’s signature on overtime authorization forms, falsified pay certification sheets, and forged his supervisor’s signature on pay certification sheets to defraud the government for significant personal gain.”

Despite the fraud alleged, Gallagher kept his job. A Capitol Police source told Blaze News that then-Capitol Police Chief Kim C. Dine intervened in Gallagher’s case. Dine assigned the discipline investigation to Inspector Daniel Malloy, the supervisor whose signature Gallagher was accused of forging. Chief Dine left the job in 2015.

The OPR investigation recommended that Gallagher be demoted from captain to lieutenant, but Gallagher escaped with only a 10-day unpaid suspension.

Jim Konczos, chairman of the Capitol Police Labor Committee’s executive board at the time of the overtime fraud investigation, described a department culture in which “supervisors are held to a lower standard, even when the conduct is criminal.”

Gallagher was promoted to assistant chief in October 2023 from his previous title of deputy chief and head of the Protective Services Bureau. He was named inspector in June 2018 and became commander of the Dignitary Protection Division. He became deputy chief in 2019. From 2010 to 2018 he was assistant commander of the Dignitary Protection Division and the Capitol Division. From 2008 to 2010, Gallagher was assistant commander of the Investigations Division.

The USCP Public Information Office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

‘Two bumps on a log’

A 16-page whistleblower letter sent to Congress in September 2021 faulted Deputy Chief Gallagher and acting Chief Pittman for inaction that led directly to injury of officers and put lawmakers in danger.

“In the Command Center, they simply watched, mostly with their hands in their laps,” wrote former Deputy Chief Jeffrey J. Pickett. “They did not try to help or assist as officers and officials were literally fighting for each other, their lives, and the Congress.”

The signature on the whistleblower letter was redacted, but Pickett later acknowledged writing the document.

“What I observed was them mostly sitting there, blankly looking at the TV screens showing real-time footage of officers and officials fighting for the Congress and their lives,” Pickett wrote. “This observation of their inaction was reported and corroborated by other officials and non-USCP entities.”

Pickett said he believed the inaction was intentional.

“It is my allegation that these two, with intent and malice, opted to not try and assist the officers and officials, blame others for the failures, and chose to try and use this event for their own personal promotions,” Pickett wrote.

“These two instead, while officers were being injured, elected to do nothing, lie and attempt to profit professionally,” Pickett wrote. “They chose to watch, as one non-USCP witness stated, ‘like two bumps on a log,’ make calls, and start to blame everyone for their failures.”

Former acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman testifies before a U.S. Senate committee on April 21, 2021.Photograph by Greg Nash/The Hill/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Pittman, who was named acting chief for the six months prior to Manger being named chief, in February 2023 became chief of police at the University of California at Berkeley. Although she did not yet qualify for Capitol Police retirement pension, Manger granted her five months of leave without pay until she reached the retirement threshold.

The department has been mired in other scandals since January 6. Former Officer Harry Dunn and Special Agent David Lazarus gave conflicting and apparently false testimony in the trial of four Oath Keepers and one associate in 2022.

Lazarus testified that he witnessed a confrontation between members of the Oath Keepers and Dunn in the Small House Rotunda, but at the time he cited, he was not even in the Capitol. The Oath Keepers had left the building prior to Lazarus meeting up with Dunn, according to a multi-part Blaze News video series by Steve Baker.

Lieutenant Michael L. Byrd, who shot and killed Babbitt at 2:44 p.m. outside the Speaker’s Lobby, was shielded from public view for seven months, hidden in a luxury hotel room at the Joint Base Andrews military facility in Maryland.

Capitol Police paid for $21,000 in security upgrades to Byrd’s Maryland home, awarded Byrd nearly $40,000 in unrestricted retention funds, and helped him establish a GoFundMe campaign that netted more than $164,000, according to a November 2024 letter from U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.).

Byrd had been accused of abandoning his post in the Speaker’s Office for a nearby cloakroom card game in 2001, then lying about it to internal affairs investigators.

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Hero or hoax? The real story behind Harry Dunn’s FBI interviews



My interest in former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn began on Oct. 6, 2022 — the third day of the first Oath Keepers trial at the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, D.C.

Shortly after a recess and before the jury returned to the courtroom, lead prosecutor and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler approached the lectern. He informed U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta that Jonathon Moseley — a recently disbarred attorney — had threatened to release two confidential FBI documents known as “302s.”

Much of what Dunn described in his FBI interviews, congressional testimony, court appearances, and even his book and media tour simply didn’t happen.

Form FD-302 consists of written notes and recollections recorded by an FBI special agent following an interview. In this instance, Nestler referred to two 302s based on separate interviews with Officer Dunn. The FBI conducted the first interview in May 2021 and the second in August 2021.

Nestler stated that both forms remained sealed by the court and were labeled either “sensitive” or “highly sensitive.” Moseley, however, argued that the documents could now be released publicly because the House Select Committee on January 6 had introduced them as part of its proceedings.

What I saw looked like a pre-orchestrated performance between Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler and Judge Amit Mehta — the first of several such moments I witnessed during that trial. Mehta appeared furious at the idea that Moseley believed he could release something still under his seal.

I watched the exchange unfold from the media room on the first floor of the district courthouse. That room received live audio and video feeds from the courtroom upstairs, where the trial was taking place. On a typical day during the nine-week trial, 20 to 30 journalists gathered there to cover proceedings. It was the only place in the courthouse where we could use laptops and other electronic devices, which were banned in the courtroom itself.

Most reporters spent their time compiling notes for end-of-day write-ups. But a small group of us tweeted the proceedings in real time.

After Nestler informed the judge of Moseley’s threat to release the FBI 302s, Mehta responded in a way I had never seen before.

He turned his attention to the journalists in the media room and instructed us to “tweet out” a message directly to Moseley: If he released the 302s — or any other documents still protected under court seal — Mehta would hold him in contempt of court.

“He’ll find out,” the judge said.

What was in there?

The media room burst into laughter at Judge Mehta’s directive that we do his bidding and relay his warning. Within seconds, keyboards clattered as journalists rushed to compose their own versions of the judge’s threat, broadcasting it across social media.

Each day of the trial, I took my place in the back right corner of the media room. I was a newcomer among a group of seasoned courtroom reporters — an outsider observing the insiders. During the first two weeks, the courthouse remained under a COVID-19 masking mandate. From my seat, I could let my mask dangle from one ear without attracting much attention — or the disapproval of my more dutiful colleagues.

That vantage point also gave me a clear view of the room. I could watch what the other reporters were typing, observe their screens, and monitor how they shaped the narrative.

While they laughed and tweeted Mehta’s warning to Moseley, I kept my focus elsewhere. One question consumed my thoughts: What is in those two 302s?

What exactly did those two FBI forms contain that the prosecution — and the judge — didn’t want the jury or the American public to see?

One clue had already surfaced on social media. It came from Dunn’s May 18, 2021, FBI interview, cited in a pretrial motion filed by Stewart Rhodes’ attorney, Edward Tarpley. A footnote on page 12 of the filing quoted the following excerpt:

U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn informed all protestors they needed to leave and told the Oath Keepers that the protestors were fighting officers. The Oath Keepers advised Dunn they would help keep the protestors from the lower west terrace area. Dunn advised he allowed them to stand in front of him to help keep the protestors from getting down the stairs. Dunn left this area when he was relieved by USCP riot officers.
— FBI Interview of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, May 18, 2021, page 2, publicly disclosed by the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

This account — Dunn’s own description of his encounter with four Oath Keepers at the top of a Capitol staircase near the Rotunda — appeared to support their claim that they had helped de-escalate a volatile situation. Rather than confronting the officer, the Oath Keepers allegedly positioned themselves between Dunn and a more aggressive crowd, attempting to prevent further escalation.

I had to get my hands on those 302s — and eventually, I did.

Inventions and evasions

The second 302, based on Officer Harry Dunn’s August 16, 2021, interview with the FBI, told a very different story from the first. In that follow-up, Dunn completely reversed his account. He now claimed he never gave the four Oath Keepers permission to assist him at the top of the staircase. Instead, he described the interaction as hostile, saying they tried to force their way past him.

Dunn also invented a second encounter — this one taking place a floor below, in the crypt. In that version, he said another group, also wearing militia-style gear resembling the Oath Keepers’, attempted to position themselves between him and a more aggressive crowd of protesters.

The contrast between the two interviews raised more questions than answers.

Although I’ve never publicly released the two 302s, both proved invaluable. They offered critical details — and pointed me toward what to watch for once Congress finally granted journalists access to the long-promised 41,000 hours of Capitol CCTV footage from January 6.

Drawing from that surveillance footage, D.C. Metropolitan Police body-worn cameras, and other open-source videos released during various January 6 trials, Blaze Media has been able to confirm a troubling pattern: Much of what Harry Dunn described in his FBI interviews, congressional testimony, court appearances, and even his book and media tour simply didn’t happen.

Two weeks before the October 2023 release of his book, “Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th,” Dunn agreed to meet with me for an off-the-record conversation. We spent four hours together at the U.S. Capitol Arboretum.

Because the meeting was off the record, I can’t disclose anything Dunn said. But I came prepared with some frank and direct points of my own. By then, I had already spent days in the Capitol CCTV viewing room, combing through surveillance footage we would later call “A Day in the Life of Harry Dunn.” I had also read an advance copy of his book.

To say the video evidence and his personal narrative about January 6 don’t match is putting it mildly. It's the understatement of the century.

I shared with Dunn several specific examples where the video evidence directly contradicted his claims of heroism and derring-do on January 6. Eventually, he asked how I planned to write his story.

“Harry, the media, Congress, even the president — they’ve made you a national hero,” I told him. “But I can make you a real hero if you give me the names of those who pushed you to change your story about the Oath Keepers in that second FBI interview.”

After that, I walked him to his car. He said he’d think about it.

But he never gave me those names.

Here’s the ‘Truth About January 6’



Over the last four years, more and more information about what really went down on January 6, 2021, has trickled out. From FBI involvement to Capitol Police possible perjury, Blaze Media has been unveiling the bombshells that shatter the left’s anti-Trump insurrectionist narrative.

In our final episode of “The Truth About January 6,” BlazeTV is blowing that narrative wide open. We’ve got Capitol surveillance footage, conflicting timelines, and serious questions about Officer Harry Dunn’s story — the one he used to get rich and famous.

Blaze Media investigative reporter Steve Baker, who has studied Dunn’s every move for the last year and a half, says this exposé “will contradict everything he’s ever said about that day.”

In this episode, Baker dismantles Dunn’s story from beginning to end. From Dunn's morning briefing and his violent encounters with protesters to his efforts to save Rosanne Boyland and the tirade of racial slurs that drove him to weep, Baker, armed with ample video footage, shows that none of it ever happened.

“There is no other conclusion that can be made: Dunn is either a pathological liar, or he’s been conscripted by the left-wing establishment in D.C. to support their narrative,” says Baker.

The left’s lie that Officer Dunn is a “hero” deserving of praise ends with the release of “A Day in the Life of Harry Dunn: Part Three.”

Join us as we set the record straight. Our final installment of “The Truth About January 6” is streaming right now on BlazeTV. To watch the full investigation from the very beginning, subscribe to BlazeTV.

Damning video exposes former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn's tortured relationship with Jan. 6 truth



Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn prides himself on telling the truth.

When it comes to January 6, though, he and the truth often appear to be at odds.

That is the powerful contention in a new Blaze Media video production, “A Day in the Life of Harry Dunn: Part One — A Leisurely Pace,” streaming on BlazeTV and social media.

The video chronicles some of the tales told by the most famous police officer on Jan. 6 — and then reveals what really happened.

Steve Baker, a Blaze News investigative reporter who researched and narrated the production, said Dunn’s carefully crafted story — told before Congress, on network talk shows, and in his best-selling book — is nothing but fiction.

“Everything he did to establish his fame was done deceptively,” Baker said, recalling Dunn’s dramatic retelling of a briefing he attended at the Capitol early on Jan. 6. It was a meeting that security video proves never took place.

“When one opens their own narrative with so much detail about the time, the location, the content of the meeting that never happened,” Baker said in the film, “well, then everything else he says about January 6 must be called into question.”

'Harry rose to fame based on deception and lies.'

Just as more doubts began to emerge about his truthfulness in 2024, Dunn retired from the Capitol Police. After a losing bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, Dunn joined the presidential campaigns of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I don’t think it’s a stretch of the imagination, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration, to say that we are one election away from the extinction of democracy as we know it,” Dunn told CBS News when he announced his bid for Congress.

During a presidential election panel discussion in Michigan in August, Dunn said news accounts undersold the amount of violence he and other officers experienced on Jan. 6 at the hands of Trump supporters.

“The violence that you saw was probably 10, 100 times worse than what the cameras portrayed it to be,” Dunn said in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn laughs with President Joe Biden before Dunn is awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal at the White House on Jan. 6, 2023.Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Dunn was not the target of violence on Jan. 6. The Blaze Media investigation showed how Dunn’s dramatic tales about his actions on Jan. 6 don’t match thousands of hours of Capitol Police security video that Baker reviewed. Security footage shows Dunn’s stories simply don’t match the evidence.

Baker got the initial idea for the video while listening to Dunn testify for the prosecution in the first Oath Keepers trial in October 2022. The details Dunn shared not only didn’t add up, they were different from what he told the FBI in his first meeting with agents in 2021, Baker said.

Baker discovered that Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus could not have witnessed an alleged confrontation Dunn had with the Oath Keepers. Dunn testified under oath that Lazarus was present near the Small House Rotunda with the Oath Keepers. But at the time Dunn claimed it took place, Lazarus was on the other side of the Capitol.

As Baker dug into more of Dunn’s public statements and media appearances, other problems became apparent.

Included among them was Dunn’s contention that he engaged in “hand-to-hand combat” with rioters and that fellow officers were carried away on stretchers during the worst violence of Jan. 6.

Then there was Dunn’s most widely repeated story of a group of 50 white-supremacist Trump supporters chanting the N-word when he told them he voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

A review of hundreds of hours of footage from that day, tracking Dunn's whereabouts, did not uncover any evidence that any such "hand-to-hand combat" or racially charged interactions occurred.

“The key to the story is that Harry rose to fame based on deception and lies,” Baker said.

Dunn testified under oath before the now-defunct Jan. 6 Select Committee. He made countless television appearances on CNN, MSNBC, and the ABC talk show “The View.” He received a Presidential Citizens Medal from Biden at the White House in 2023.

Dunn’s 2023 memoir, “Standing My Ground,” received widespread media attention. Baker said the book, much like Dunn’s other public testimonies, is “a gold mine of lies.”

Capitol Police and Dunn did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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Robert De Niro tapped by Biden to spread fear; says our ‘government will perish’ under Trump



Biden isn’t known for his excellent decision making, which is why it’s not surprising his administration would hold a press conference outside Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan.

Not only was the choice a strange one, but the press conference was held while closing arguments were set to begin — and featured actor Robert De Niro.

The press conference also featured two police officers who were at the Capitol on January 6, Harry Dunn, who Sara Gonzales notes is a “known perjurer,” and Michael Fanone.

“Under Trump this kind of government will perish from the earth. I don’t mean to scare you, no, no, wait. Maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted,” De Niro warned.

“And elections? Forget about it. That’s over, that’s done. If he gets in I can tell you right now, he will never leave. He will never leave,” he continued. “That’s why I’ve joined the Biden-Harris campaign, because the only way to preserve our freedoms and hold on to our humanity is to vote for Joe Biden for president.”

“You’re a liar,” Gonzales says, disturbed.

Harry Dunn also used the opportunity to spread fear, telling the audience, “The fight for a lot of us didn’t end on January 6. That evening when we went home, the fight still continues now. What happened that day was an attempt to overthrow an election.”

“Donald Trump is the greatest threat to our democracy, and the safety of communities across the country today. He has encouraged and continued to encourage political violence. We’ve been called traitors just today, we were all called traitors on January 6 for doing our job.”

Gonzales and Jaco Booyens are shocked by the display.

“Of course they’ll pull Robert De Niro. It’s the true deplorables that will stand there, and that press conference was about as dismal as a Joe Biden campaign trail,” Booyens says.

“These grandiose terms, ‘He’ll never leave,’ it’s scare tactics. And unfortunately, some Americans buy it,” he adds.


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Former Capitol cop Harry Dunn — subject of Blaze News Jan. 6 investigation — calls Trump 'greatest threat to our democracy'



Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn — a main subject of an ongoing Blaze News investigation uncovering the truth about January 6 — on Tuesday blasted former President Donald Trump as the "greatest threat to our democracy" during a news conference outside a Manhattan courthouse where Trump's controversial Stormy Daniels trial was being held.

Video shows Dunn saying the following:

The fight for a lot of us didn't end on January 6 that evening when we went home. The fight still continues now. What happened that day was an attempt to halt, to overthrow an election. Donald Trump is the greatest threat to our democracy and the safety of communities across the country today. He has encouraged and continued to encourage political violence. We've been called traitors, just today. We were all called traitors on January 6 for doing our job. And yes, we protected Republicans, we protected Democrats alike. It's not about the story that we don't agree with. Political violence is never acceptable ... but you have a presidential candidate that champions it, that encourages it, that supports it. We cannot have that.

'The fact that Harry Dunn, Fanone, and the others are going to do a swing-state tour with Biden is just fodder for those of us who know the truth of what they really did happen on January 6.'

Dunn also said, “Americans need to wake up. This is not a drill,” the Associated Press reported.

The former cop — who also recently lost a bid for a U.S. House seat — added, “We can’t count on these institutions to stop Donald Trump. It’s going to take us Americans at the ballot box to defeat him once and for all," the AP said.

The news conference also featured anti-Trump barbs from left-wing actor Robert De Niro, who called Dunn and another former Capitol Police officer, Michael Fanone, "true heroes." A person standing close by called them "traitors" and said "they lied under oath." That set off De Niro, who clearly didn't know what the person was talking about. The actor finally admitted, "I don't know, I don't even know how to deal with you, my friend. I don't even know how to deal with you."

Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker has penned multiple analyses pushing back against Dunn's many claims about January 6, such as "January 6 and the N-word that wasn't," "Harry Dunn's account of January 6 does not add up. At all." and "Why did a powerful veterans' PAC endorse Harry Dunn, phony ‘hero’ of January 6?"

Baker offered Blaze News the following reaction to Tuesday's news conference:

The fact that Harry Dunn, Fanone, and the others are going to do a swing-state tour with Biden is just fodder for those of us who know the truth of what they really did happen on January 6. Watching this presser with De Niro when someone said, "They lied under oath" and "they're traitors," and De Niro replied, "I don't even know how to deal with you" — of course he doesn't know. He's unaware that we have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that some of those cops lied under oath, both in congressional and trial testimonies.

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Democratic establishment's Jan. 6 'hero' defeated in House primary — and people are thanking Steve Baker



Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn won the confidence of establishment Democrats by dutifully bolstering their preferred Jan. 6 narrative, even though it diverged greatly from reality. He tried to replicate that success Tuesday in the Maryland House primary but reality caught up with him.

Dunn ran in Maryland's 3rd Congressional District — where he is not a resident — against over 20 other Democrats. Although the so-called "hero" managed to edge out relative unknowns who had not similarly been anointed by President Joe Biden, he couldn't compete with Maryland state Sen. Sarah Elfreth (D).

In mid-April, Dunn's campaign highlighted Upswing Research and Strategy polling data that suggested he was leading "within the margin of error." According to the Guardian, Elfreth's campaign raised only a third as much money as Dunn.

'Dunn was supposed to be an appointed apparatchik for them. You know, the bottom line is that the machine itself had decided that he was going to be their secure vote on anything that they wanted.'

At the time of publication, Elfreth leads Dunn by over 10 points with 66% of the votes counted.

"I just got off the phone with senator Elfreth, congratulating her on her hard-fought victory," Dunn tweeted Tuesday evening. "Although tonight’s results may not have gone like we hoped, all I can feel right now is gratitude. With our democracy on the line this November, I can make you one promise — I'm not going anywhere."

Dunn isn't going to Congress, having proven unable to attract voters with his Presidential Citizens Medal from Biden; his campaign claim that he has "put country above self"; his alleged willingness to violate Capitol Police regulations to help his party; his endorsements from Democratic Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Eric Swalwell (Calif.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.), Jim Clyburn (S.C.), and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.); his self-aggrandizing book; his numerous appearances on liberal talk shows; and his dramatic Jan. 6 protest-themed campaign ad, where he smeared Republican lawmakers as "bigots."

Following Dunn's rejection by voters, Blaze News investigative writer Steve Baker was inundated with messages thanking him for his past reports on the failed congressional candidate.

Inconvenient facts

Having been present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in the capacity as a reporter, Baker has long understood that Dunn's relationship with the truth was strained.

NEW\ud83d\udea8\n\nThis Capitol police officer's book and trial testimonies\u2019 about January 6 are directly contradicted by Capitol CCTV video. And now he's running for Congress. Stay tuned for the next installment of our Truth About January 6 series, "A Day in the Life of Harry Dunn"
— (@)

For instance, in October, Baker dug into Dunn's repeated claim that he was called a n***** "numerous times" during the Jan. 6 protests. He made this claim before a congressional subcommittee, on ABC News' "Good Morning America," and also recycled it elsewhere, including in his memoir "Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th."

'In what many regard as the most video-recorded event in history, not a single piece of evidence — video or audio — has emerged to confirm that such a racially charged incident ever took place.'

The trouble with Dunn's claim, Baker noted, was that "in what many regard as the most video-recorded event in history, not a single piece of evidence — video or audio — has emerged to confirm that such a racially charged incident ever took place."

Video evidence reviewed by Baker does, however, suggest the event did not transpire as it was later described by Dunn. Extra to the racially charged incident apparently never taking place and the antagonist in the story never showing up in hours of footage, Dunn's claim that he broke down crying was also not substantiated by the video evidence. Instead, Baker noted he could be seen chuckling with fellow officers.

Baker has not only identified numerous other instances where Dunn trafficked in falsehoods but various irregularities involving the former USCP officer.

Blaze News previously reported on Baker's allegations that Dunn was behind the anonymous 2021 letter on Capitol Police letterhead slamming Republicans averse to forming a Jan. 6 commission.

According to Baker, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.) encouraged Dunn to write the letter, which CNN made hay of in May 2021, even though he likely knew "that it's a violation of Capitol Police regulations for Dunn to take political stances in representation of the department."

According to Baker, Dunn allegedly violated numerous departmental directives against using USCP time and resources for political purposes and worked with members of the Capitol press pool in the phrasing of the letter.

Many thanks

Biden boosters rushed to thank Dunn for all his work to place second.

Script reader Mark Hamill wrote, "Although it didn't go the was [sic] I wanted, I know this is just the beginning & you are destined for greatness. Thank you for your service, sir."

Democratic TikTok propagandist Harry Sisson wrote, "So proud of the race you ran, Mr. Dunn. You should be incredibly proud. You’re a true inspiration!"

Much of the gratitude following the election flowed another way entirely — to Baker.

'They feel better today than they did the day before because they actually thought this one was fixed.'

Baker told Blaze News, "My DMs have just been full over the last 12 hours or so with celebratory, congratulatory messages from current and former Capitol Police officers as well as congressional staff. ... Straight across the spectrum."

"I've even had some messages from some — let's say — acquaintances I have in the mainstream media who've sent me messages as well with, you know, a wink and a nod," added Baker.

When pressed on the significance of Dunn's defeat, Baker referenced the sentiment that has permeated much of the responses he has received: "People are encouraged that this was not — and they're actually telling me this — that maybe our elections are secure. It's kind of a funny statement. Because everybody thought the fix was in on this one."

Even though this was a Democratic Party primary, Baker said, "They feel better today than they did the day before because they actually thought this one was fixed."

Baker suggested this amounts to a strategic setback for establishment Democrats.

"Dunn was supposed to be an appointed apparatchik for them. You know, the bottom line is that the machine itself had decided that he was going to be their secure vote on anything that they wanted," said Baker. "The Democratic Party establishment had basically decided that he was going to be their guy and that that vote would be secure for as long as they could keep him in office."

According to Baker, Dunn's personal shortcomings would have provided establishmentarians — particularly those who endorsed him — with leverage to get what they wanted down the line.

"This is a guy with a highly checkered past. Multiple disciplinary reports from the Capitol Police. He has, of course, his own issues with domestic violence, and he has a history of anger issues. So with his past, they were going to be able to control his vote," continued Baker. "Because they can always hold that over him. ... 'This is a trump card we have. You don't give us the vote that we need, we will flip that card, and we'll flip your seat in two years.'"

Baker suggested that the failure of establishment Democrats to advance their preferred candidate in Maryland is telling.

After highlighting the state-level efficacy of Elfreth, Baker noted, "I think it's very interesting that Pelosi, Thompson, et cetera, couldn't overcome that with their favorite son. I mean, they all elevated this guy to the status of hero ... and they weren't able to pull that off. I think that's a good sign for all of us right now."

"This is a big win," added Baker.

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Just-released Jan. 6 videos show Capitol Police officer lied in Oath Keepers trial, Blaze Media investigative journalist says



Just-released U.S. Capitol closed-circuit TV video clips from Jan. 6, 2021, show Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus gave false testimony in the Oath Keepers trial, Blaze Media investigative journalist Steve Baker reported.

What's the background?

Baker penned an analysis in October calling into question Lazarus' testimony — which helped convict the Oath Keepers — noting that time-stamped CCTV videos Blaze News observed show Lazarus in other parts of the Capitol complex at the time he said he witnessed now-former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn interacting with Oath Keepers on Jan. 6.

Baker and others could view the Jan. 6 videos only on Washington, D.C., House subcommittee terminals in a limited and restricted capacity. What's more, at the time of Baker's Oct. 4 analysis, Blaze News was permitted to publish only a single Jan. 6 screenshot of Lazarus in the Capitol after then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted the previous day, putting video permissions on hold.

By early November, U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) released multiple Jan. 6 video screenshots of Lazarus' movements in the Capitol, telling Baker in a statement that he did so because "an allegation of a Capitol Police officer lying under oath is very serious and must be fully investigated."

On Nov. 17, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said nearly all Capitol security videos from Jan. 6 — nearly 40,000 hours' worth — will be made available online to the public. Johnson's announcement followed Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson's appeal to the speaker to release all the videos.

On Friday, Baker said Blaze News finally received permission to publish the Lazarus video clips, which appear in a new video BlazeTV published Monday morning titled, "The Truth about January 6: Part III: David Lazarus: Proof of Perjury."

— (@)

Baker's announcement was a response to Tarik Johnson — a former Capitol Police lieutenant — who noted on X that his sources informed him that "USCP Chief J Thomas Manger has decided NOT to investigate the allegation that USCP Special Agent David Lazarus gave false testimony in the Oath Keepers trial."

What about the just-released CCTV clips from Jan. 6?

In Monday's BlazeTV video, Baker breaks down Lazarus' whereabouts in the Capitol complex in a detailed, minute-by-minute fashion using the time-stamped video clips recorded on Capitol CCTV cameras.

While Lazarus testified that he saw Dunn with the Oath Keepers — a claim that Baker said "bolstered" Dunn's testimony — Baker reported that Lazarus "couldn't have" seen Dunn with the Oath Keepers because the CCTV videos show Lazarus "was in another building a quarter of a mile away" at that time.

What's more, Baker said that newly released videos showing Lazarus' whereabouts were "never released" to Oath Keepers' defense attorneys at the time of the trial.

"This should rock the Capitol Police," Baker said in Monday's BlazeTV video. "We received messages from our sources at the [Department of Justice] in Washington that they were 'terrified' of this story."

Then there's the screenshot Baker obtained of an internal email he said was passed between Capitol Police leadership. Baker said they "were concerned about the traction" the story was receiving.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

The screenshot of the email's conclusion reads, "Something for us to keep an eye on to see if it develops or not."

Baker retorted, "Now this is interesting about the Capitol Police that they're more worried about the traction of their story than they are worried about the lie that their special agent told on the stand in the Oath Keepers' trial."

Capitol Police did not immediately reply to Blaze News' request for comment on the newly released Capitol CCTV videos of Lazarus.

Here's BlazeTV's video, "The Truth about January 6: Part III: David Lazarus: Proof of Perjury":

Anything else?

Baker's investigative efforts also resulted in two additional analyses, both focusing on Dunn: "January 6 and the N-word that wasn't" and "Harry Dunn's account of January 6 does not add up. At all."

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