Police officers who guarded Capitol sue to block Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘slush fund’

Police officers who guarded Capitol sue to block Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘slush fund’

Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters on January 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to ​halt President Donald Trump's nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of ‌political "weaponisation."

Abubakar Ibrahim
May 20
Police officers who guarded Capitol sue to block Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘slush fund’

Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters on January 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to ​halt President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of ‌political “weaponisation.”

In a complaint, opens new tab filed in federal court in Washington, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges alleged 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 seeks a court order blocking payments ⁠from the fund, calling it “the most brazen act of presidential corruption ​this century.”

Trump settled on Monday with the Internal Revenue Service, agreeing to drop ​his $10 billion lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns during his first term.

As part of the settlement, the Justice Department created the fund to compensate victims of ​political “weaponisation.”

U.S. acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faced repeated questions over that ​fund during congressional testimony on Tuesday.

Blanche said the money could be given to members of ‌any ⁠political party and is not limited to January 6 defendants. The standard for who will get money, he said, is defined broadly by those who experienced “weaponisation.”

Dunn, a Black 15-year veteran of the police force that protects U.S. ​lawmakers, has been ​vocal about the ⁠physical and racist abuse he endured during the attack as Trump supporters sought to prevent Congress from certifying ​former President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, including before a bipartisan ​House ⁠of Representatives panel that investigated the deadly riot.

He has said he battled post-traumatic stress disorder from the event.

During the Capitol attack, Hodges was pinned in ⁠a ​revolving door by a rioter wielding a police ​shield, a moment that became a viral video.

He remains on Washington’s police force and ​has testified before Congress about his experience.

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