Two police officers who fought rioters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 have sued President Donald Trump over a $1.776bn fund they allege is a taxpayer-funded “slush fund” to reward those who carried out the attack.
Harry Dunn, a retired Capitol police officer, and Daniel Hodges, a Metropolitan police officer, filed the complaint in federal court in Washington DC on Tuesday. The fund, created after Trump and his sons dropped a $10bn lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, is intended to compensate allies the president claims were victims of prosecutorial overreach. The lawsuit describes it as “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century”, arguing that it encourages violence in the president’s name.
Both officers defended the west front of the Capitol during the insurrection. Hodges appeared in video footage being crushed between metal doors while trying to stop rioters, and had one attempt to gouge his eyes. Dunn, who has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, says the pair already face credible threats of death and violence, which the fund substantially increases.
The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, and the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, are also named as defendants. At a Senate hearing on 19 May, Blanche did not rule out payments to January 6 rioters, saying the fund’s commissioners would decide. Trump has defended the possibility, claiming those involved were “weaponised” and “imprisoned wrongly”, while Vice-President JD Vance said anyone, including Hunter Biden, could apply.
