The nation’s largest police union appears to be on the cusp of endorsing for president convicted felon Donald Trump, who released from prison a cop killer subsequently convicted of a strangulation attack on his wife, and who salutes, praises and has promised to pardon domestic terrorists convicted of assaulting police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Fraternal Order of Police is hosting the coup-attempting former president at its board meeting Friday in North Carolina, where an endorsement appears likely. The Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor and state attorney general of California, was not invited to the gathering.
“We are eager to see President Trump again after meeting with him at Mar-A-Lago earlier this year,” FOP President Patrick Yoes said in a recent statement.
Neither Yoes nor any of the members of its executive board responded to HuffPost queries about its expected endorsement of Trump, whose lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him led to 140 police officer injuries and five officer deaths from the Capitol assault that Trump incited in a last-gasp attempt to hang on to power.
In his final days in office, Trump commuted the life sentence of drug dealer Jamie Davidson, who was convicted of murder for his involvement in the shooting death of a New York state police officer in 1990. Following his release, Davidson was arrested in Orlando, Florida, and charged with battery by strangulation and domestic violence. A jury convicted him of a lesser battery charge in July, and he is now back behind bars.
An FOP employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he was not certain how the union came to back Trump, despite everything he has done. “To be honest, I’m not sure. You raise an important question, but I’m not sure.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, asked how Trump had received the FOP’s endorsement despite being a convicted criminal, responded: “Kamala sucks.”
Police officers who defended the Capitol from Trump’s mob were livid about the union’s support for Trump, who in May was convicted on 34 felony counts and is facing dozens more felony charges in other cases.
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Michael Fanone, a former Washington, D.C., officer who suffered a heart attack after being repeatedly shocked by a Taser as he fought Trump supporters on Jan. 6, said that the Fraternal Order of Police has never been there for him and other officers who were attacked that day. “The truth is that FOP leadership is more interested in kissing the ass of a convicted felon who incites violence against law enforcement, then hails the perpetrators as ‘heroes’ and ‘patriots’ and promises them pardons,” he said.
Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer who was also there on Jan. 6, said his former colleagues are “appalled” that the union is even contemplating backing Trump. “The fact that the FOP is entertaining, let alone offering, a potential endorsement is a slap in the face to men and women who bravely defended the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
The Harris campaign on Thursday held a conference call with Dunn and two sheriffs who are backing her candidacy to denounce the likely endorsement of Trump.
“He uses cops for nothing more than a photo-op or a television prop,” said Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County in Texas. He pointed out that with his felony conviction, Trump wouldn’t even be eligible to be a police officer.
“It looks like they’re endorsing a person who wouldn’t qualify to be a law enforcement officer in any state of the union that I’m aware of,” Salazar said.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18 in New York City, where he was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to a porn actor in the days ahead of the 2016 election. He could receive as much as four years in prison.
He faces four felony counts in federal court in Washington, D.C., based on the Jan. 6 coup attempt. He could receive decades in federal prison if convicted. Trump is also under felony indictment in Georgia for his attempt to overturn his election loss there. Conviction on the most serious charges could mean decades in Georgia state prison.
Trump had also been indicted in federal court in South Florida for refusing to turn over secret documents he took with him to his Palm Beach country club upon leaving the White House. Though the trial judge dismissed the charges, an appeals court currently has the case and could reinstate them.