Two police officers who were on duty during the January 6 insurrection have filed a civil lawsuit after a memorial plaque to honor those who defended the building was not put up.
Harry Dunn, a former officer of the United States Capitol Police, and Daniel Hodges, who currently serves in the Metropolitan Police Department, say the agency that operates and maintains the Capitol is violating a law that required a plaque to be erected.
The two men are bringing the suit “to compel Congress to follow its own law and install the mandated memorial, to honor the women and men who saved the lives of those inside the building, and to ensure that the history of this attack on the Capitol—and on democracy—is not forgotten,” the filing states.
More than 140 police officers were injured on January 6, after a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a bid to block his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. Five police officers involved in defending the Capitol died in the following weeks.
A year later in 2022, Congress passed a law that directed the Architect of the Capitol, Thomas Austin, to honor the officers who defended the building, which was signed by Biden.
Austin is named as the defendant in the civil lawsuit, but previously testified at a U.S. House subcommittee that his office had not received “final instructions” about installing the plaque.
According to the suit, during the riot, Dunn protected injured officers, and Hodges was kicked in the chest Someone also tried to gouge out his eyes.
“Many of the other officers who defended the Capitol and the elected officials inside that day did not expect to survive,” the filing states. “One officer trapped in the crowd heard rioters scream, ‘Kill him with his own gun’ as they grabbed ammunition magazines from his belt.”
In a statement shared with Reuters, a lawyer for Dunn and Hodges said “Congress's refusal to install the plaque is an attempt to rewrite history. So many politicians' careers now depend on ignoring the fact that Donald Trump tried to overthrow democracy.”
The lawsuit also states that in the aftermath of the attack, Trump has spread disinformation and conspiracy theories that have been adopted by his Republican allies in Congress.
"After Congress passed the law, the politics of January 6 began to change. Donald Trump began to call the attack on the Capitol a ‘day of love’ and said that 'the cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed," the lawsuit said. "As Trump's political fortunes rebounded, elected officials began to parrot his claims about the day."
It adds: “While Congress has installed a memorial to other officers who died in a different tragedy, it has not installed the plaque to honor those who defended the Capitol on January 6.
“Meanwhile, though Congress has not installed the memorial to the officers who defended it, members have managed to honor the man who inspired the violence."
It comes as controversy over Jan 6 continues to rumble on, especially in light of Trump’s return to the White House.
After returning to the Oval Office in January, Trump pardoned about 1,500 of his supporters who were charged in the attack. Some of those individuals had been accused of attacks on police officers and many of those suits were filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia – like that of Dunn and Hodges.
Trump’s pardons drew criticism from some police organizations and Republicans.
"Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think, was a mistake,” Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said at the time.
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