1 of 5 | Police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Trump administration for creating a $1.776 billion fund for rioters. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Trump administration for creating a $1.776 billion fund for rioters.
Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges are suing the administration, alleging that the slush fund paid by tax dollars is illegal. The lawsuit seeks to block the creation of the fund, which the Department of Justice has named the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
“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,” reads the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C.
“The fund, styled the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund,’ is illegal. 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 Office of the Attorney General announced the creation of the fund on Monday. It orders that within 60 days the U.S. Department of the Treasury directs a payment of $1.776 billion into the fund’s account.
“Once the funds are deposited into the Designated Account, the United States has no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds, regardless of bank failure, fraudulent transfers or any other fraud or misuse of the funds,” the memo by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche reads.
The lawsuit argues that creation of the fund violates the 14th Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal money to “pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”
The lawsuit also says that Dunn and Hodges have faced continued harassment and death threats from Trump supporters who participated in the Capitol riot. They say the creation of the fund could inspire further harassment.
The Public Integrity Project is representing Dunn and Hodges in the lawsuit. The organization was founded by Brendan Ballou, a prosecutor of Jan. 6 cases who resigned from the Justice Department after Trump pardoned Capitol rioters last year.
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump turns to photographers in the press pool after greeting guests during the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo
