Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack have sued to block payouts from a new $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” created for people who say they were victims of politically motivated prosecutions.
In the federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn sought an order preventing anyone — including rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 — from receiving payments from the fund, court filings said. The officers named Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, along with the Justice and Treasury departments.
The lawsuit argues that the fund is “an illegal slush fund” and that Trump will use it to “finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.” It also describes the creation of the fund as “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century” and asks the court to dissolve it, according to the AP report.
The officers tied the fund to the settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. The fund, according to the complaint described by the Associated Press, is designed to compensate people who believe they were mistreated by prior administrations’ Justice Department, with payout decisions made by a five-member commission appointed by the attorney general.
More than 100 police officers were injured during the Capitol riot, and nearly 1,600 people were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, AP reported. Trump later used his pardon powers in a sweeping act of clemency that erased those cases, the report said.
The plaintiffs said the fund encourages additional violence. The officers argued that the fund “encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so,” and they also alleged that it substantially increases danger to them, with the suit describing “credible threats of death and violence” they say they already face.
Hodges and Dunn have both testified before Congress about their experiences during the attack, and the AP report said videos captured a rioter ripping a mask off Hodges as he was pinned against a door during a fight over control of a tunnel entrance.
The suit was filed a day after Blanche defended the fund’s creation during a congressional hearing, according to AP. Blanche, who previously worked as a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department, would not rule out that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 could be eligible for payouts, AP said.
AP reported that Blanche later told CNN that the commission will have to consider a claimant’s actions “among other factors,” when deciding whether to give them money, but added: “Whether the commissioners will give that person money — that claimant — it’s up to them.” Blanche also said in the interview that it was “abhorrent” to harm law enforcement, but characterized backlash to the fund as “fake outrage,” AP reported.
An attorney for the officers, Brendan Ballou, is a former Justice Department prosecutor who handled Jan. 6 cases, the AP report said. Spokespeople for the Justice and Treasury departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit, AP said.