Jan. 6 officers take first step toward defeating Trump's insurrectionist 'slush fund'

Two of the most recognizable police officers from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to kill the Trump administration's $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" before it can pay out a single dollar to the rioters who beat them.

Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, calling the fund "the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century."

"The fund, styled the 'Anti-Weaponization Fund,' is illegal," the complaint states. "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."

The lawsuit argues the fund violates the 14th Amendment's explicit prohibition on using federal money to "pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States." It also contends the Justice Department had no legal authority to create the fund in the first place.

The fund was announced Monday as part of a settlement of Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns — a lawsuit the complaint calls a "Potemkin" sham with "zero legal merit" that was filed solely to be settled. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump's former personal lawyer — signed off on the deal just days before a court deadline that would have forced the DOJ to defend the case's legality.

Both Dunn and Hodges are among the most prominent officers from that day. Video of Hodges being crushed, screaming in a Capitol door frame, became one of the defining images of the attack. Dunn testified before Congress that he faced "a torrent of racial epithets" from rioters. Both men say they continue to receive credible death threats — including from right-wing activist Ivan Raiklin, who named them on a "retribution list."

The complaint argues the fund will make those threats far more dangerous. "Payments from the Fund will be used to finance the operations of those who have threatened and tried to kill Plaintiffs," it states.

The officers are represented by the Public Integrity Project, founded by Brendan Ballou, a former Jan. 6 prosecutor who resigned from the DOJ after Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 Capitol riot defendants.

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward told reporters Tuesday that it was "way, way, way too early" to criticize the fund, noting that no claims had yet been filed and no payments had been made.