For the millions of Americans who watch the presidential inauguration every four years, the Lower West Terrace Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol is a familiar site.
The incoming president walks through that tunnel and on to the inaugural platform, before taking the oath of office.
- the site of a bloody, hourslong struggle between law enforcement and a mob of supporters of President-elect Donald Trump.
"My fellow officers and I were punched, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants by a violent mob," Capitol Police about his experience in the tunnel on Jan. 6. "I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself: 'this is how I'm going to die - defending this entrance.'"
Now, Trump is poised to walk through that same tunnel again as president-elect, after he successfully campaigned on a message that people convicted and charged of crimes for their actions on Jan. 6 are "political prisoners" and . Trump opened his first rally of the presidential campaign with a rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" recorded from a jailhouse phone by Jan. 6 defendants, including an and others accused of violent assault. During the campaign, he referred to Jan. 6 as a "day of love."
For Gonell and other victims of that day's violence, Trump's electoral victory was a gut punch.
"It feels sometimes, like, what did I risk my life for?" Gonell told NPR.
Gonell says his injuries from Jan. 6 were so severe that he needed to undergo two surgeries, and ultimately had to retire from the Capitol Police. He's watched as Republican lawmakers, some of whom he defended from the rioters, have downplayed the severity of the violence.
"All these elected officials, they don't care about the officers - people like myself that put their lives on the line to protect them," he said. "We did our job and gave them the time to escape, to evacuate the building. And they seem to have forgotten the fear that Donald Trump's mob made them feel."
Gonell immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic. He later served in the Army Reserve, became an American citizen and deployed to Iraq before joining the Capitol Police. After the attack on the Capitol, he spoke out about his experience as a witness in Congress and at criminal trials, and in a memoir called American Shield.
"I've done everything that was asked of me," Gonell said. "I loved this country and it feels like the country doesn't love me back."
The Justice Department has described the Jan. 6 attack as an act of domestic terrorism that threatened the nation's peaceful transfer of power. Prosecutors estimate that 140 officers suffered injuries that day. One of the officers who was assaulted was Brian Sicknick.
During the riot, a man attacked Sicknick with a chemical spray. Later that evening, Sicknick collapsed in the U.S. Capitol and was rushed to the hospital. The next day, Jan. 7, he died. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Washington, D.C. later stated that Sicknick had died of "natural causes" - the result of two strokes - while noting that "all that transpired played a role in his condition."
Sicknick's family blames Trump for his death and campaigned against his reelection.
"What I'm very upset about that might happen is that he's gonna let all these people out of jail," said Gladys Sicknick, Brian's mother. "It's just not right."
Trump has not detailed which of the more on the Capitol might receive pardons. In 2024, he told interviewers with the National Association of Black Journalists that he was open to pardoning defendants convicted of assaulting police, because "they were convicted by a very, very tough system."
That could include the man who pleaded guilty to assaulting Brian Sicknick or those convicted of assaulting Gonell.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance Transition, said in an emailed statement that "The American people did not fall for the Left's fear mongering over January 6th. They re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin because they want him to unify our country through success, and that's exactly what he will do."
She added, "Unlike Joe Biden who just commuted the sentences of murderers, child predators, and other violent criminals, President Trump will pardon Americans who were denied due process and unfairly prosecuted by the weaponized Department of Justice."
The statement did not provide any specifics about which defendants they were referring to.
For victims of the Jan. 6 attack, the attempt to whitewash the events of that day has been especially difficult.
Charles Sicknick, Brian's father, said he has lost friends over their skepticism about the insurrection.
"I try not to associate with people who are Trump people and I have lifelong friends that I don't associate with anymore because of what happened," Charles Sicknick said. "To them, it's not a big deal, because it wasn't their son, you know?"
Craig Sicknick, Brian's older brother, said the grief of losing his little brother and the minimization of Jan. 6 has changed him. He's prone to online fights over politics now.
"I'm not nice. I used to be nice, used to be decent. I don't tolerate it anymore." he said. "I've turned into a much angrier, crankier person. People don't like me? I don't care."
The Sicknick family has held close to Brian's memory. A table sits near the front of the house, filled with commendations, including a Congressional Gold Medal and a Presidential Citizens Medal. Charles and Craig wear metal bracelets with Brian's badge number. Gladys Sicknick got a tattoo with an image of her son's Capitol Police badge on her forearm.
Aquilino Gonell said watching much of the country either forget or distort the Jan. 6 attack reminded him of his experience in the military, and the way the country responded to the war in Iraq.
"I remember when I was in Iraq, I came back for my two weeks R&R - rest and recuperation. And when I came back, I saw people move on. People were living their lives and not even thinking about what was happening in that part of the world," Gonell said. "And that's how I feel now. People moved on from that day. Officers like myself, we have not been able to."
Some federal judges who have presided over the more than 1,500 criminal cases stemming from the assault have also decried false narratives about Jan. 6. "The rewriting of the history of Jan. 6, 2021, is incredibly disturbing," said U.S. District Court judge Beryl Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama, at a . Judge Royce Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, wrote in a last month that he had witnessed "harrowing stories" at Jan. 6 trials, and said that jurors at these trials "know how perilously close we came to letting the peaceful transfer of power, that great cornerstone of the American republican experiment and perhaps our foremost contribution to posterity, slip away from us."
Regardless of the shifting public narratives about Jan. 6, Gonell said he is still coping with post-traumatic stress from his experience defending the Capitol. Adding to his stress is the possibility that from the incoming administration.
In late 2023, Trump reposted a on social media that "the cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed." Gonell also appeared at the Democratic National Convention and opposed Trump's candidacy, and Trump has repeatedly threatened his political opponents.
Gonell told NPR he did nothing wrong.
"What are they gonna get me on?" he said. "Doing my job? Attesting to what happened to me?"
The Trump transition team did not respond to NPR's specific question about whether the incoming administration intends to pursue investigations of law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol.
Gonell said he'll continue to speak out about his experience on Jan. 6, even if he now questions whether it makes a difference in the public perception.
"It was a horrible day not only for myself but for my colleagues," he said. "No matter how much the other side wants to erase it, it won't change that."
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