Two Jan. 6 police officers sue Trump to block $1.8B 'lawfare' fund
watch now Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot sued President Donald Trump on Wednesday, seeking to block
watch now Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot sued President Donald Trump on Wednesday, seeking to block the new $1.8 billion "lawfare" fund set up by the Department of Justice to compensate Trump allies who claim they were victims of prosecutorial overreach. "In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name," the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., says.
"The fund, styled the 'Anti-Weaponization Fund,' is illegal," the suit alleges. "No statute authorizes its creation, the settlement on which it is premised is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law." The two plaintiffs in the civil complaint are Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, and Daniel Hodges, an active officer of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington. In addition to Trump, the defendants in the suit are Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, left, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, right, and Michael Fanone, a former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer, arrive for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol hearing to present previously unseen material and hear witness testimony in Cannon Building on Thursday, June 9, 2022.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. Getty Images Dunn and Hodges were at the Capitol when it was stormed by a mob of Trump supporters, disrupting a joint session of Congress that was being held that day to confirm the electoral victory of Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Their suit says the new fund endangers their lives and safety by encouraging "those who enacted violence in the President's name to continue to do so." "Dunn and Hodges already face credible threats of death and violence on regular basis; the Fund substantially increases the danger," the suit says.
"Second, if allowed to begin making payments, the Fund will directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters who threatened Plaintiffs' lives that day, and continue to do so."
The BriefWire