He shouted "Trump won!" while the marshals were literally hauling him out of the courtroom. Honestly, it was a moment that felt like it belonged in a movie, but for Daniel Rodriguez, it was the climax of a years-long descent into a very dark rabbit hole. If you’ve followed the news, you know his name. You know the taser. You probably know the victim, Michael Fanone.
But the details? They’re way messier than the headlines suggest.
Daniel Rodriguez Jan 6 is a name that usually triggers one of two reactions. For some, he's the poster child for political radicalization. For others, he’s a guy who just got "carried away." But when you look at the 151-month sentence handed down by Judge Amy Berman Jackson, you realize the court didn't see a guy who just got swept up in a crowd. They saw a "one-man army of hate."
The Taser Incident That Changed Everything
The footage is hard to watch. You've got Officer Michael Fanone being dragged into a mob near the Lower West Terrace tunnel. It’s chaotic. It’s loud. People are screaming "Kill him!" and "Get his gun!"
Then there’s Rodriguez.
He didn't just stumble into the fight. According to the evidence presented in court, he was handed a stun gun by another rioter, Kyle Young. Rodriguez then reached out and drove that taser twice into Fanone’s neck. The result? Fanone suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury. He eventually lost his career in law enforcement because of what happened in those few seconds.
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Most people think this was a random burst of violence. It wasn't.
If you dig into the Telegram logs from the "PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang" group chat—which Rodriguez helped run—you see the groundwork being laid weeks in advance. On December 29, 2020, he literally wrote, "Congress can Hang. I'll do it." He wasn't just showing up for a rally; he was, as the judge put it, "spoiling for a fight."
The "Dad" Complex: Why Rodriguez Did It
One of the weirdest and most tragic parts of this case is the defense's argument. They didn't just say he was a patriot. They argued he was looking for a father figure.
His lawyers actually claimed that Rodriguez viewed Donald Trump "as the father he wished he had." He even referred to the former president as "dad" in his social media chats. It sounds like a stretch, but when you watch his FBI interview—the one where he cries and calls himself "a piece of shit"—you see a man who was deeply, deeply lonely and looking for something to belong to.
He tried to join the Army when he was 35. They turned him down because of his record. He spent his days watching InfoWars and right-wing pundits like Steven Crowder. Basically, he replaced a lack of personal direction with a massive, all-consuming political identity.
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That Infamous FBI Interview
After his arrest in March 2021, Rodriguez sat down with agents in Riverside, California. This wasn't some "tough guy" stand. He broke down. He wept.
"I’m so stupid. I thought I was going to be awesome. I thought I was a good guy."
He told the agents he was an "asshole" and felt ashamed that his mother was going to find out. Later, his legal team tried to get this interview tossed out. They argued he was sleep-deprived and that the agents were being "psychologically coercive." Judge Jackson wasn't buying it. She watched the three-hour video and saw a man who was talking because he wanted to be heard, not because he was being forced.
It’s a bizarre contrast. You have the guy on Jan 6 who’s smashing windows with a wooden pole and tasing a cop, and then you have the guy in the interrogation room crying about how he's a "fucking piece of shit."
The Sentencing and the "Trump Won" Shout
When June 2023 rolled around, the government was asking for 14 years. They wanted to send a message. Rodriguez had pleaded guilty to four felonies, including conspiracy and assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon.
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The final tally? 12.5 years.
At the time, it was one of the longest sentences handed out for anything related to the Capitol riot. Fanone was there, too. He actually walked out while Rodriguez was giving his statement to the judge. He told reporters later that he wasn't going to sit there and listen to the guy's "apology."
And that apology? It felt pretty hollow to most people when Rodriguez yelled his support for Trump on the way to his cell. It was like he spent the whole trial trying to show remorse to get a shorter sentence, but the second the gavel hit, the mask came right back off.
What This Means for Future Cases
The Daniel Rodriguez case set a massive precedent for how "conspiracy" is handled in these trials. It wasn't just about what he did at the tunnel. It was about the planning. The group chats. The fact that he brought a knife and pepper spray to D.C.
It proved that the DOJ could link online rhetoric to physical violence in a way that sticks.
Taking Action: How to Navigate This Information
If you’re trying to make sense of the legal fallout from Jan 6, don't just look at the headlines. The nuance is in the court filings.
- Read the transcripts: The FBI interview transcript for Rodriguez is publicly available and shows the psychological state of radicalization far better than a 30-second news clip.
- Track the sentencing guidelines: Look at how judges distinguish between "passive" rioters and those who brought weapons. Rodriguez is in the latter category, which is why his 12-year term is so much higher than the average.
- Understand the "E-E-A-T" of the case: Use sites like CourtListener or the Department of Justice press releases to get the primary sources. There is a lot of spin on both sides, but the signed plea agreements contain the facts Rodriguez himself admitted to under oath.
Rodriguez is currently serving his time, with a projected release date well into the 2030s. He’s also on the hook for nearly $100,000 in restitution for Fanone’s medical bills. It’s a long road back from a single afternoon in D.C.