In the Spotlight
By Cara Castronuova
Published August 20, 2022
A liberal Democrat public defender destroyed Crying Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell in cross examination and in closing statements at a January 6th defendant’s trial this past week.
Gonell humiliated himself and likely committed perjury as he was aggressively cross examined by Natasha Taylor-Smith. Taylor-Smith is the rare talented and fair public defender that was assigned to January 6th political prisoner Kyle Fitzsimons.
Fitzsimons is a father and butcher from Maine. He is being charged with multiple felonies, including 3 counts of “Assaulting a Police Officer”. He faces decades in prison if convicted.
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter HERE.
Gonell watched his pending book deal “An American Treason: How One Immigrant Saved Democracy” go down the drain as he repeatedly exposed himself as a liar that likely committed perjury multiple times in court.
It was brutal and satisfying to watch. Unfortunately, the government will not allow the airing of these trials for the general public and keeps them under wraps. Only approximately 15 people, including the Gateway Pundit, will ever bear witness to the fascinating evidence presented today in the trial of January 6th defendant Kyle Fitzsimons.
Unlike the phony one-sided January 6th Hearings, there was actually cross examination and real evidence presented that showed an incredibly different story than the government has painted.
Watch an independent journalist catch Sergeant Gonell outside the DC courtroom here and accuse him of perjury in video below:
VIDEO HERE.
As expected, Gonell was able to conjure up a few crocodile tears on the stand for the Judge, although it took him a while as he struggled to get himself worked up. He seemed relieved when his voice finally cracked while reminiscing on his “heroic” tales. Tears are now the expected norm for any police officer called to testify about January 6th.
Gonell is one of the crying cops who threw Trump Supporters under the bus and testified for the January 6th Committee on a panel of fellow teary-eyed police officers. He has been lauded a hero by the leftist media outlets like CNN and the recipient of a Congressional Gold Medal.
Attorney Taylor-Smith did not buy into Sergeant Gonell’s ridiculous self praising “heroic cop” rhetoric. If the trial was a boxing match, a calculating Taylor-Smith knocked the unprepared Gonell around the ring. She waited patiently as he became agitated and confrontational, then counterpunched HARD with video evidence and lines of aggressive questioning that caught him in lie after lie.
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter HERE.
This trial proves that Gonell likely lied to the Congress during the Unselect Committee Hearing, lied to the FBI when giving statements and to the media during interviews in which he has painted himself as a hero. This can all be substantiated by the video played out in court during the Fitzsimons trial that directly contradicted many statements made by Gonell on the record and under oath by Congress. Most of this footage is unfortunately not yet available the public, and under seal by the government.
Natasha Taylor-Smith cross examined Gonell after he testified that her client Kyle Fitzsimons was the man that caused his alleged “shoulder injury”. Gonell claims he is permanently maimed and the injury forced him into retirement from the Capitol Police Force (with more than likely a full pension and disability benefits). Gonell testified he remembers his seconds long encounter with Fitzsimons on January 6th, whom he recalled violently pulling his shield down – therefore causing his shoulder injury.
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter HERE.
Fitzsimons watched as Gonell’s testimony was effectively discredited and debunked by the talented Taylor-Smith, who meticulously proved with slowed down video evidence that Fitzsimons never touched Gonell’s shield. In fact, she proved with video that multiple police officers and other protesters were seen leaning on his shield in the mayhem during the time Gonell claims his shoulder was injured.
Gonell also testified that he struck Fitzsimons with his baton several times, stressing that he only struck Fitzsimons’ ARMS after being led by the prosecutor. We suspect this is because Fitzsimons’ head was broken open by a police baton in the exchange and he had to have eight staples put in his head at the emergency room. The prosecution knows that it is very possible it was the baton of Gonell that did the near deadly damage, so made sure Gonell testified he ONLY HIT FITZSIMONS IN HIS ARMS. Therefore they could claim Gonell did not use ‘lethal force’ against the protester.
Despite seeing the video evidence replayed several times in slow motion showing that Fitzsimons never touched his shield, Gonell continued to insist “It was Fitzsimons!” After it finally dawned on Gonell that the video showed was contradicting his testimony, he then changed his tale. A new story emerged that Fitzsimons must have injured him by touching a tiny shoulder strap on his arm (as this was seen in the video he was shown).
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter HERE.
This was quickly countered by Taylor-Smith in a compelling defense. She told the court that when Fitzsimons was touching Gonell’s strap he was not pulling him into the crowd as Gonell claimed. She said Fitzsimons was blinded by the tear gas and having trouble breathing gas more than likely coming from a large canister a police officer was seen spraying liberally into the crowd in the video. Fitzsimons was falling with people on top of him and reaching out for anything to hold onto to prevent himself from being crushed. This is why he had Gonell’s shoulder strap for a few seconds. In the video this is all substantiated. It is obvious Fitzsimmons could not see what he was touching as his head was down in the video and he seemed to be struggling to stay upright. Gonell and Fitzsimons are tangled up in cops fighting protesters. Anyone or anything in the melee could have caused Gonell’s “injury”, yet the DOJ chose this man to persecute.
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter HERE.
It is a well known fact that police officers were dousing the crowds with tremendous amounts of tear gas, contributing to the death of Rosanne Boyland and multiple injuries of other protesters who ingested it and slipped on the saturated floors.
“Contrary to what Sergeant Gonell would like this court to believe, it wasn’t only law enforcement that was having difficulty remaining on their feet as a result of the chaos that was taking place at the mouth of the tunnel,” said Taylor-Smith. “It is clear that Mr. Fitzsimons fell at the mouth of the tunnel.”
Taylor-Smith contends that Fitzsimons did not intend to assault Gonell and video shows him falling under a crowd desperately grabbing at the railings or anything to keep upright. She said:
“Officer Gonell wouldn’t even acknowledge the fact that at the time that Mr. Fitzsimons was in contact with him he was down on his knees, and that he had several protesters over top of him. At that time Mr. Fitzsimons was in peril of being crushed to death. He was blinded by the spray, on the ground surrounded by punching and kicking. He was unable to protect his head from batons that were falling on him.
He (Fitzsimons) was trying not to die too!”
Video backs up all of this. Unfortunately most of the clips that were shown in court are part of the 14,000 hours of footage not available to the public. The Gateway Pundit was able to view it in DC Court this week in the courtroom.
See video [below,] created by video journalist Gary McBride showing the incident from limited available video:
VIDEO HERE.
Gonell was confrontational with Taylor-Smith and he asked if she would call him “Sergeant” when she referred to him as “Officer”. Taylor-Smith later returned the favor when Gonell mispronounced her client’s name and asked he pronounce it correctly.
“It is FITZSIMONS”, she told Gonell, who grudgingly corrected himself.
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter HERE.
This is the first time Gonell has testified under oath in a court of law. Sadly, Gonell believes his own BS and could not answer a straight question that challenged his character. He is not accustomed to being expected to give an honest answer. Gonell is accustomed to the opportunistic January 6th Committee kissing up to him and asking softball questions. There was no Liz Cheney or Bennie Thompson to encourage and praise him this time.
During cross-examination, he stepped out of the “hero” character the January 6th Unselect Committee created for him. He showed another side – an arrogant, offensive and rude man that at times refused to directly answer defense questions. He became confrontational with Taylor-Smith, who was not having any of his nonsense.
At times Gonell refused to answer Taylor-Smith‘s questions and reverting back to stuttering his memorized media talking points about “being a hero on the frontline defending the Capitol.” Taylor-Smith waited for him to finish his irrelevant self-praising soliloquies, allowing him to unwittingly show the holes in his own testimony. She asked the judge to instruct the witness to answer her questions and refrain from making irrelevant remarks. “Please just answer Yes or No,” Taylor-Smith asked Gonell a number of times, clearly frustrated with his lack of courtroom decorum.
Gonell also admitted under oath that he still calls the FBI to report January 6th crimes he may come across. This man has literally made a business out of being a victim, a shill for the January 6th Committee and now wrongfully incriminating defendants.
As part of her strategy, Taylor-Smith easily exposed Gonell as unreliable witness with vested interest in the outcome of the trial. She successfully pointed out serious flaws in Gonell’s character and conduct to discredit his testimony. She submitted evidence to the court of Gonell purposefully trapping a terrified protester in a corner with his shield that was trying to escape the tunnel. (Gonell had denied and lied about this under oath previously.)
Taylor-Smith told the judge:
“I want to talk about the one individual – the white male with the long beard in the corner on the left hand side…
Sergeant Gonell had given a statement to law enforcement where he told law enforcement that that individual in the corner was assaulting police officers, impeding police officer progress, that he was NOT trying to leave and that he didn’t see him cowering. But we have all seen that video now on numerous occasions and not only was that individual not doing any of those thing (besides cowering). At one point he did attempt to leave and Sergeant Gonell pressed his shield on that individual to prevent him from leaving. And then after Sergeant Gonell stood up to walk away the individual attempted to leave again and was pushed back by law enforcement.
Sergeant Gonell had made a concerted effort to create a narrative that everybody who was there, everybody who was present was assaulting, everybody there who was present was part of a coup attempt, everybody there that was present should be punished – he said (Gonell) – to the fullest extent of the law.”
See video of the protester described above being beaten by cops here as Fitzsimons attempts to help the poor man:
VIDEO HERE.
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter by clicking HERE.
One of the heroic tales that Gonell has told about himself is that he saved another fellow officer by pulling him up by the collar, something quickly questioned and disproven with video by Taylor-Smith.
Gonell also swore under oath that when Fitzsimons assaulted him he felt “the worst pain in his entire life”. Taylor-Smith then played a montage of clips of Gonell in the back of the Capitol after “the worst pain in his life” where he seemed to be moving his arms and shoulders freely and in no physical duress. Taylor-Smith asked him “Was that you in the worst pain of your life, Sergeant?”
Gonell became incredibly irate and defensive, and started rambling something along the lines of “What was I supposed to do? I had to protect the Vice President, the President and the line of succession was at stake.” Seriously?! I don’t think they would have missed this self-inflated dim-wit who truly believes he is “The One Immigrant Who Saved Democracy”.
Gonell claims he had to have shoulder surgery shortly afterwards, and has been out on permanent disability since January 21st of 2021.
He recently announced in a sickening New York Times op-ed titled “I was Betrayed By President Trump” that his doctor broke his heart and told him he “could never work as a police officer again” due to his injury. He spends his cushy retirement waiting to cash in on a lawsuit against President Trump and his allies, getting paid for media appearances and shopping around his phony memoir “An American Treason: How One Immigrant Saved Democracy”.
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter by clicking HERE.
According to defender Taylor-Smith’s closing statement:
“It cannot escape (the court) that Officer Gonell does have a financial interest in the outcome of this matter. In addition to the fact that he is shopping around a book deal “An American Treason: How One Immigrant Saved Democracy”, he also testified about pending lawsuits and going after individuals civilly…and he has testified that he’s participated in over 60 interviews and at least two of them he was paid for.”
In closing, the Biden-supporting attorney argued that protesters had every right to be at the Capitol to protest what they thought was a stolen election. She expressed REAL VISCERAL DISGUST when Gonell said he believed everyone on January 6th were part of a coup and should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.
Here is more of the Taylor-Smith’s fantastic closing argument:
“Sargeant Gonell has said so many times that “it is Kyle Fitzsimons who did this. Kyle Fitzsimons who created the injury”. He can’t walk it back now, Your Honor. He said it to Congress, he said it to law enforcement, he said it in 60 interviews. He said it in his book treatment. So (to him now) it can’t be anyone else! Even though he clearly saw in the video that there are numerous people pulling on Sargeant Gonell’s actual shield. Remember when we first talked about how he got his injuries? He said- “Oh, my shield got pulled, my shield got pulled”. And it was only after sitting on the stand and watching the testimony and realizing that Mr. Fitzsimons actually never made contact with the shield that all of a sudden it became “my strap, it was my strap”. That’s because it HAD TO BE Mr. Fitzsimons. Mr. Fitzsimons had become the poster child for January 6th. Never mind the fact that I showed Sargeant Gonell (the evidence). Sargeant Gonell testified that is was the worst pain he had felt in his entire life, that it was a ten on the Richter scale. In a statement he (Gonell) says that he ‘received his injury when a rioter had pulled on his shield’. Gonell said ‘he was determined not to lose the shield and hung onto it with his fingertips which caused significant strain in an awkward direction on his shoulder. (Gonell said) other rioters were striking on the shield and this further exasperated the injury’. I don’t know how you further exacerbate a 10 of 10 on the Richter scale! It’s because, Your Honor, it’s got to be Kyle Fitzsimons (to Gonell) now who pulled on the shield! But the government simply has not met its burden beyond a reasonable doubt. And the burden that the government bears is not based just on what a witness feels or thinks – its based on actual evidence.“
If there were a jury in the box, the court would instruct that jury that Sergeant Gonell’s testimony is not to be afforded any additional weight than any other witness that was presented at the trial. That is why I will submit to the court that it is clear that Sergeant Gonell has demonstrated that he was not just an active participant in the events that occurred on January 6th, but he’s been MORE THAN an active participant in the events following the events and the prosecution. Sergeant Gonell has given a number of statements about how he feels about the January 6th incident and the individuals who have been arrested. He said that most ‘insurrectionists’ are getting leniency in the type of charges, and light sentences they are getting and request for removal [of] restrictions. (Gonell said) “I’m outraged. I feel angry, frustrated, in fear, vulnerable.”
It is truly a criminal shame America could not watch this trial on television. It would be a GAME CHANGER for the Democrats andd Moderates to see a Capitol Police Officer get caught in multiple lies on the stand. It would change hearts if regular people saw a leftist public defender rightfully and articulately stand up for her January 6th client’s right to protest what he perceived to be a stolen election. In fact, it was possibly the first time in a January 6th courtroom that the “belief in the stolen election” was not treated as taboo by even the defendant’s own attorney. That was due in part to the flawless opening statement made by Taylor-Smith, which helped set the tone for the trial.
Hopefully we see less of Gonell and his tissue box now that he has been exposed.
He should consider changing the title of his book to “How a Compromised Cop Committed Perjury to Aid in Taking Down the Nation: The Aquilino Gonell Story”.
Help J6 defendant Kyle Fitzsimon’s family and baby daughter by clicking HERE.
*The trial commenced on Friday and the judge is expected to come back with a verdict in approximately two weeks. We will keep you updated.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)
