The partner of Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died after trying to protect the building on Jan. 6, said Monday that former president Donald Trump should serve prison time for his role in the insurrection. She said she holds Trump “100 percent responsible” for Sicknick’s death.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
Ahead of the first anniversary of a riot that resulted in five deaths and injured 140 law enforcement officers, Sandra Garza told “PBS NewsHour” that she demands justice for Sicknick, who suffered two strokes hours after rioters sprayed him with a chemical substance. Sicknick died the next day, at the age of 42, of what a medical examiner said were natural causes.
“I hold Donald Trump 100 percent responsible for what happened on January 6 and all of the people that have enabled him, enabled him that day, and continue to enable him now,” said Garza, who was Sicknick’s girlfriend for 11 years.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
When asked by host Judy Woodruff how Trump should be held accountable, Garza did not mince words on the former president, whom she described as “a horrible person.” She said: “Personally, for me, I think he needs to be in prison. That is what I think.”
Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday.
The Attack: Before, During and After
Garza’s call for justice nearly a year after her partner’s death comes as the Justice Department continues to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to give a speech Wednesday amid growing pressure, especially from Democrats, to hold Trump and others in his orbit criminally responsible for their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
AG Merrick Garland plans speech on Jan. 6 investigation for Wednesday
The question of why it took Trump so long to call on his supporters to stand down after they stormed the building has been of particular interest to a House committee’s probe of the Capitol breach, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee’s chairman, recently told The Washington Post. Thompson said the delayed response could be a factor in deciding whether to make a criminal referral, which is when Congress tells the Justice Department it believes a crime has been committed.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
More than 725 people have been charged with crimes in connection with the events of Jan. 6, federal prosecutors in D.C. announced last week. About 165 people have pleaded guilty to a variety of federal charges, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The effect on the U.S. Capitol Police remains chilling. The agency’s workforce declined and its morale plummeted in the aftermath of the riot, even as its workload continued to soar. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told The Post that roughly 9,600 threats were aimed at members of Congress or the Capitol itself in 2021. The Capitol Police force is now operating with 130 fewer officers than in 2020, thanks to mass retirements and resignations that followed the Jan. 6 attack.
Capitol Police see sharp increase in threats to Congress, departure of dozens of officers
Garza has been vocal in expressing her disappointment at Republicans for being “all talk and no action” after GOP senators blocked legislation to form an independent Jan. 6 commission last year.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
“Clearly they’re not backing the blue,” she said in May.
On Monday, Garza remembered Sicknick as “one of the sweetest, kindest men I have ever met.” She acknowledged that while she accepted the medical examiner’s findings that Sicknick died of natural causes, she maintained that what happened at the riot caused him to die earlier than she could have expected.
“What I will say is: The medical examiner did say that all that transpired that day definitely played a role in kind of escalating or tipping the scales to escalate his death. And I agree with that,” she said. “So I think, definitely, that played a role in tipping the scales for him to pass away much faster.”
Story continues below advertisement
She reflected on how Sicknick was a Trump supporter and that he opposed Trump’s first impeachment. Garza told PBS she believed her partner’s perspective on Trump would have changed if he had survived. Garza said Trump has not contacted her nearly a year after Sicknick’s death.
Advertisement
“I think, sadly, Brian did not live long enough to see the evidence that has come forth to show what kind of man Donald Trump really is,” she said. “I think Brian would be horrified. I think he would have viewed Donald Trump in a very different light.”
On MSNBC, Garza told host Joy Reid that Trump “instigated this entire event” and watched the Capitol riot play out on television. House committee members said Sunday that they have “firsthand testimony” confirming that Trump watched the Capitol riot on TV as his allies urged him to call off his supporters.
Story continues below advertisement
“He stood by for hours and watched what was going on at the Capitol during this insurrection, watching everything unfold like it was an action movie,” Garza said.
While Garza acknowledged that she isn’t sure whether Trump will ever be charged in connection with the riot, she said it would be “satisfying to me to see him in prison.”
“Trump belongs in prison — period,” she said.
Matt Zapotosky and Tom Jackman contributed to this report.
Read more:
Since Jan. 6, the pro-Trump Internet has descended into infighting over money, followers
Fear, anger and trauma: How the Jan. 6 attack changed Congress
Desperate, angry and destructive: How Americans morphed into a mob