The Department of Justice moved to dismiss a civil lawsuit brought by an injured Capitol police officer who responded to the events on Jan. 6, 2021, that could have forced President Donald Trump's administration to hang a plaque commemorating that day.
Congress commissioned a plaque to honor the bravery of police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot shortly after the event occurred. The plaque was supposed to be completed by May 2023 and installed by 2024, but the installation was not completed before Republicans won back control of Congress.
Since then, the party has sought to prevent the real plaque from being hung. Democrats have chided Republicans by hanging replicas throughout the halls of Congress.
In the lawsuit, the police officers claimed that the delay in hanging the plaque caused them "psychic injuries," and they also received death threats. The DOJ argued in a court filing on Tuesday that these allegations do not constitute an "injury-in-fact," and asked the judge to toss the case.
"Despite that public recognition over three years ago, Plaintiffs contend that the harms they allegedly experienced on January 6, 2021, and allegedly continue to experience from the subsequent conduct of third parties, persist," the court filing reads. "They have pled no allegations that would allow the Court to plausibly infer that the further act of installing an honorific plaque would ameliorate any of their alleged harms which either arose from the events of January 6, 2021, or flow from the subsequent independent acts of parties not before the Court."
"For example, it is implausible for Plaintiffs to suggest that the installation of the plaque would stop the alleged death threats they claim to have been receiving from third parties not before this Court," it added. "Accordingly, standing does not exist for this additional reason."