Former U.S. Capitol officers injured in Jan. 6 attack to stump for Biden in Pittsburgh

Police officers who were injured in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol will travel to Pittsburgh and other cities in Pennsylvania this week to criticize former President Donald Trump’s alleged role in the attack.

Former Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell will visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday as part of an event with President Joe Biden’s campaign. The officers will highlight Trump’s alleged role and will “raise the alarm about the threat” Trump poses to American democracy and about the ongoing threat of political violence, according a news release.

Dunn served 15 years for the U.S. Capitol Police and suffered minor injuries in the incident. He advocated for the creation of the Jan. 6 committee to investigate the attack. He ran as a Democrat for a congressional seat in Maryland this year but lost in the primary.

“The future of democracy is at stake in this election,” Dunn said in a statement.

Gonell is a former Capitol officer and an Army veteran. He suffered injuries to his hands, left shoulder, left calf and right foot in his efforts to protect the Capitol. His injuries were part of the reason he resigned from the Capitol Police in 2022.

The officers are set to meet with elected officials and community leaders, advocates against political violence and community members. After the Pittsburgh stop, the officers plan to travel to Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Erie and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area.

The Pittsburgh stop comes less than a week after Trump was convicted in a New York court on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a scheme to hide potentially embarrassing stories during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has said the trial was “rigged” and politically motivated. He has vowed to appeal the conviction.

The former president also has been charged in federal court, accused of conspiring to defraud the U.S. by illegally subverting the results of the 2020 presidential election and the peaceful transfer of power. A trial has not been set, and the U.S. Supreme Court is considering Trump’s appeal to those charges.

At political rallies, Trump has said people arrested for storming the Capitol have been treated unfairly, and he has called them “patriots.”

More than 1,300 people have been charged with federal crimes in the attack on the Capitol, ranging from misdemeanor offenses such as trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy.

At least two dozen are from Western Pennsylvania.

Trump has vowed to pardon them.

Since Trump’s conviction, polls have moved slightly in Biden’s direction. An ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 49% of Americans think Trump should end his 2024 presidential campaign.

Pennsylvania political experts are mixed on what the impact of Trump’s conviction could be but said even a small shift could make a big difference in the contest.