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WASHINGTON — <\/span>As Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time<\/a> on Jan. 20, 2025, former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell<\/a> put his phone on \u201cdo not disturb\u201d and left it on his nightstand to take a break from the news. <\/p>\n That evening, after Gonell spent time with family and took his dog on a long walk, his phone started to blow up with calls. He had messages from federal prosecutors, FBI agents and the federal Bureau of Prisons \u2014 all letting him know that the new president had just pardoned about 1,500 people<\/a> who had been convicted for their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021<\/a>. The pardons included rioters who had injured Gonell as he and other officers tried to protect the building. <\/p>\n \u201cThey told me that people I testified against were being released from prison,\u201d Gonell said. \u201cAnd to be mindful.\u201d<\/p>\n Gonell was one of the officers who defended the central West Front entrance to the Capitol<\/a> that day as Congress was certifying Democrat Joe Biden\u2019s victory and hundreds of Trump\u2019s supporters broke into the building<\/a>, echoing his false claims of a stolen election. Gonell was dragged into the crowd by his shoulder straps as he tried to fight people off. He almost suffocated. In court, he testified about injuries<\/a> to his shoulder and foot that still bother him to this day. <\/p>\n \u201cThey have tried to erase what I did\u201d with the pardons and other attempts to play down the violent attack, Gonell said. \u201cI lost my career, my health, and I\u2019ve been trying to get my life back.\u201d <\/p>\n Five years since the siege, Gonell and some of the other police officers who fought off the rioters are still coming to terms with what happened, especially after Trump was decisively elected to a second term last year and granted those pardons. Their struggle has been compounded by statements from the Republican president and some GOP lawmakers in Congress minimizing the violence<\/a> that the officers encountered. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a difficult year,\u201d said Officer Daniel Hodges, a Metropolitan Police Department officer who was also injured as he fought near Gonell in a tunnel on the West Front. Hodges was attacked several times, crushed by the rioters between heavy doors and beaten in the head as he screamed for help. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of things are getting worse,\u201d Hodges said. <\/p>\n More than 140 police officers were injured during the fighting on Jan. 6, which turned increasingly brutal as the hours wore on. <\/p>\n Former Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger took over the department six months after the riot. He said in a recent interview that many of his officers were angry when he first arrived, not only because of injuries they suffered but also \u201cthey resented the fact that they didn\u2019t have the equipment they needed, the training they needed<\/a> \u201d to deal with the unexpectedly violent crowd. <\/p>\n Several officers who fought the rioters told The Associated Press that the hardest thing to deal with has been the effort by many to play down the violence<\/a>, despite a massive trove of video and photographic evidence<\/a> documenting the carnage. <\/p>\n Trump has called the rioters he pardoned, including those who were most violent toward the police, \u201cpatriots\u201d and \u201chostages.\u201d He called their convictions for harming the officers and breaking into the building \u201ca grave national injustice.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI think that was wrong,\u201d Adam Eveland, a former District of Columbia police officer, said of Trump\u2019s pardons. If there were to be pardons, Eveland said, Trump’s administration should have reviewed every case. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a hard time processing that,\u201d said Eveland, who fought the rioters and helped to push them off the Capitol grounds. <\/p>\n The pardons \u201cerased what little justice there was,\u201d said former Capitol Police Officer Winston Pingeon, who was part of the force\u2019s Civil Disturbance Unit on Jan. 6. He left the force several months afterward. <\/p>\n