Chaos broke out during former special counsel Jack Smith’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in Congress on Thursday, January 22, with things getting crazy as former Capitol Police officer Michael Fanone got in a fight with a conservative in the crowd for the chaotic hearing event.
One of the crazy outbursts occurred when there was a recess in the hearing, which was Jack Smith’s first public appearance since he stepped down from his position as special counsel around the time of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Fanone, who used his having been involved in the police on January 6 to become something of a public figure, was in attendance for the hearing, sitting behind Jack Smith and alongside other officer shwo were involved in the day’s events.
What set Fanone off is that in attendance for the Jack Smith hearing was Ivan Raiklin, a former Green Beret and outspoken critic of the official January 6 narrative. He and Smith got into a verbal altercation during the recess in the hearing, with the verbal confrontation quickly turning into something of a physical confrontation. In fact, it got so rowdy that Capitol Police had to intervene.
Raiklin, who videoed the confrontation, heckled Fanone, asking him why he is so “spasmodic.” That set Fanone off, and the two snapped back and forth at each other in an increasingly heated verbal exchange. Raiklin, for example, mocked Jack Smith for having to be held back by his friends, saying, “See how many people are restraining you? Look at me, totally in control over my mind and body.”
Then, as a Capitol officer eventually came over and stepped between the two, Fanone bizarely claimed, “This guy’s threatened my family, threatened my children.” Continuing with the out of left field allegations, Fanone said, “Threatened my — threatened to r*pe my children, you sick b*stard! Rape my children!”
Raiklin insisted that Smith’s allegations were entirely untrue, saying that he might sue the former Capitol Police officer. Posting about the matter, he said, “Who thinks I should sue Mr. Fanone for defamation?” In the video of the incident that has emerged, Fanone insisted that he and Railkin were “mortal enemies.”
Watch their feud here:
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That wasn’t the only tense incident in which Fanone was involved during the hearing. For example, at another point during the day’s chaos, he got in a public altercation with Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) after the congressman addressed the security failures of January 6, arguing that the day’s failures were a result of Capitol leadership failing, not of President Trump.
“Lastly, I would like to quickly address the police officers of January 6th. Mr. Dunn, Mr. Fanone, Mr. Gonel, Mr. Hodges, I’m a member of the new select committee to actually examine, actually examine what happened that day. And I can tell you, gentlemen, that the fault does not lie with Donald Trump. It lies with Yogananda Pittman and the U .S. Capitol leadership team,” Rep. Nehls said.
In response to those claims, Fanone got visibly upset in the crowd, cursing at the Texas congressman and later flipping him off. Responding to the vulgar gesture from the loose cannon of a former police officer, Rep. Nehls snapped that the man needs to be “medicated,” a comment that drew loud gasps from the room.
Watch that here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video