2 officers who defended Capitol on Jan. 6 sue to stop Trump's Anti-Weaponization Fund
Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol in 2021 during the Jan. 6 attack are suing to stop the creation of President Donald Trump's $1.7 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," calling it the "most brazen act of presidential corruption this century."
Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges alleged that the compensation fund, which was announced by the Justice Department on Monday, would not only encourage those who committed violence in the name of President Trump but that it would directly finance their operations.
"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 lawsuit said.
The fund, which was part of a settlement agreement in Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, was established by the Trump administration to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration.
The lawsuit came as a former Trump administration official said he was planning to seek a $2.7 million reimbursement from the fund.
Michael Caputo -- who served as a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services during Trump's first term -- claimed he was targeted by the FBI probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and was again investigated under the Biden administration for a documentary he made with One America News about former President Joe Biden's purported connections in Ukraine.
"As survivors of the illegal Russiagate investigations, our family was encouraged by news of the Anti-Weaponization Fund. I write with profound gratitude to you and President Donald J. Trump for creating a process to right these wrongs," Caputo wrote in a letter he posted on X.
Officers Dunn and Hodges allege that the creation of the fund is arbitrary and capricious -- and therefore a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act -- and runs afoul of a prohibition in the Fourteenth Amendment barring the government from funding insurrections.
"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," their lawsuit said.
Filed in D.C. federal court, the lawsuit asked a judge to block the creation and funding of the compensation fund. The settlement agreement that initiated the fund gave the acting attorney general 30 days to create the entity and appoint five commissioners to run it.
Dunn and Hodges are some of the most high-profile members of law enforcement who defended the Capitol that day. Hodges was pinned against a door frame, attacked, and crushed by rioters. Dunn was inside the Capitol and directly engaged the rioters. He ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2024 and is currently running for Maryland's 5th Congressional District.
