Two law enforcement officers who fought off a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters at the Capitol on January 6 have filed the first federal lawsuit to dissolve the administration’s newly created fund that rioters may turn to for multi-million dollar taxpayer payouts.
The lawsuit from former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges seeks to block the nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund, which was launched as part of a settlement agreement between the president and the IRS after the president sued his own administration for $10 billion.
The men were beaten and bloodied by rioters on the day of the attack and have spent the last several years facing “credible threats of death and violence on regular basis” from members of the mob, they said Wednesday.
Trump has already issued sweeping pardons for virtually every person charged in connection with the attack. The officers now anticipate members of the mob will file claims with the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” effectively serving as their “reward” — endorsed by the president — for attacking law enforcement officers.
“In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century,” the president created a “taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” according to the complaint.
Potential payments to members of the mob will “directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters,” the lawsuit states.
“Militias like the Proud Boys will use money from the Fund to arm and equip themselves. The Fund will grant their pasts acts of violence legal imprimatur. And, most chillingly, the Fund will signal to past and potential future perpetrators of violence against Dunn and Hodges that they need not fear prosecution; to the contrary, they should expect to be rewarded,” according to the lawsuit.
“This Fund creates enormous physical dangers for Officers Dunn and Hodges, who risked their lives on January 6, 2021, and who continue to do so by refusing to let that day be forgotten,” said Brendan Ballou, founder of the Public Integrity Project, which filed the claim on their behalf.
“The Fund is stunningly, blindingly illegal, and the defendants must be prohibited from transferring money to this corrupt and illegal monstrosity,” he added.
The lawsuit alleges that the Justice Department does not have authority to set up the fund, which lawyers for the officers say would require an act of Congress.
Trump’s challenge to the IRS was a “Potemkin lawsuit, a sham brought about only so that it could be settled,” and a sitting president “cannot obtain relief on claims against his own executive branch” in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, according to the complaint.
The administration is also accused of violating the 14th Amendment’s clause prohibiting the government from paying debts and other obligations “incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”
“As a consequence of that conduct, many insurrectionists incurred sizeable debts and other financial obligations — in particular, legal fees incurred defending against criminal charges and, for the many convicted, restitution obligations,” the lawsuit states.”
“DOJ has now committed the United States to paying those debts and obligations,” it says.
“The only thing illegal and corrupt about this situation is the brazen weaponization of federal resources by previous administrations to retaliate against those with opposing political beliefs,” a spokesperson for the Justice Department told The Independent. “This Department will continue to expose this lawfare and ensure those who experienced injustices are made whole.”
More than 1,500 people were criminally charged in connection with the riots, fueled by Trump’s false narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen from him. Hundreds of defendants pleaded guilty, and more than 200 others were found guilty at trial.
All of them have received a pardon from the president on his first day in office.
Last month, the Justice Department moved to toss out remaining cases — and most serious convictions — to finish off what the president started.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has not ruled out payments to any of them, including rioters who were later charged and convicted of other unrelated crimes in the years after the attack.
Trump’s efforts join a years-long crusade to rewrite the history of the 2020 election and downplay the violence that was captured on video and admitted by assailants who tried to stop members of Congress from certifying his loss.
The president himself was federally indicted for his alleged attempts to overturn election results and for his failure to stop the mob, but the cases under special counsel Jack Smith were thrown out after his election in 2024.
“Anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were victims,” Blanche told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
He told senators that the fund will compensate Americans after “years and years of weaponization” under the Biden administration, which the president and his allies have accused of leading a government-wide conspiracy against them.
“It’s not limited to Republicans,” Blanche said of the fund. “It’s not limited to the Biden weaponization. It’s not limited in any scope to January 6, Jack Smith … There’s no limitation to the claims.”
The Independent has requested comment from the Justice Department and the Department of the Treasury.
