WASHINGTON – Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sued President Donald Trump and his administration in a bid to block the Justice Department’s new $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
The suit, filed May 20 by officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges, calls the arrangement “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.” It accuses Trump of creating a “$1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.”
The plaintiffs argue the fund’s creation endangers their lives because it encourages individuals who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 to continue acting violently. They also contend it will finance rioters, paramilitaries and other supporters who threatened their lives on Jan. 6 and “continue to do so.”
“To prevent the public financing of paramilitary organizations in the United States, and to protect Plaintiffs from further violence, the fund must be dissolved,” the suit, filed in Washington, DC, federal court, says.
Trump, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are listed as defendants. Dunn and Hodges have both spoken out publicly about their experiences defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol to try to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win. They say they remain targets of harassment and threats.
Blanche announced the “anti-weaponization” fund on May 18 as part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit that Trump and his family brought against the Internal Revenue Service seeking $10 billion in damages over the president’s leaked tax returns. The Trump family agreed to voluntarily drop the lawsuit ‒ meaning a federal judge won’t rule on the merits of the suit ‒ in exchange for the creation of the fund.
The “anti-weaponization” fund makes $1.8 billion available to compensate Trump allies who a commission appointed by Blanche deems were unfairly targeted by prosecutors in past Democratic administrations, paving the way for supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to potentially receive the taxpayer money.
Trump used presidential powers on the first day of his second term to pardon or commute sentences of nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants, including hundreds of individuals convicted of assaulting police officers.
The suit argues the Justice Department lacks the authority to create the fund because only Congress, not the executive branch, has the power under the Constitution to create new agencies and determine their structure and funding. It also says federal law does not grant the Justice Department the power to create new commissions, appoint its members or recognize new substantive rights or claims.
The Justice Department has said a five-member commission, with all members appointed by Blanche, will control how the funds are dispersed.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to the lawsuit.
Blanche, the president’s onetime personal attorney, has not ruled out money from the fund going to defendants who were convicted of assaulting police officers on Jan. 6.
“Anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they are a victim of weaponization,” Blanche told the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19, stressing that applicants won’t be limited to Republicans.
Trump, when asked about money potentially going to Jan. 6 defendants, said the fund would be used to reimburse people who were “treated horribly.”
“They’ve been weaponized. They’ve been in some cases imprisoned wrongly. They paid legal fees that they didn’t have. They’ve gone bankrupt. Their lives have been destroyed,” Trump said.
Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, retired from the department in 2023 and is running for Congress as a Democrat in Maryland. He lost a 2024 bid for a different congressional seat. Hodges is an active member of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington.
Dunn and Hodges are represented by the Brendan Ballou, a former prosecutor who prosecuted Jan. 6 defendants, and the Public Integrity Project, a left-leaning legal organization.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.