Police officers who guarded Capitol sue to block Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘slush fund’

By Jan Wolfe

May 20 (Reuters) – Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters on January 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to halt President ​Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of ‌political “weaponization.”

In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges alleged Trump has “created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups ‌that ​commit violence in his name.”

The lawsuit ⁠seeks a court order blocking ⁠payments from the fund, calling it “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.”

Trump settled on Monday with the Internal Revenue Service, agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit over the ​leak of his tax returns during his first term. As part of the settlement, the Justice Department created the fund ⁠to compensate victims of political “weaponization.”

U.S. acting ⁠Attorney General Todd Blanche faced repeated questions over ​that fund during congressional testimony on Tuesday.

Blanche said the money could ​be given to members of any political party and ‌is not limited to January 6 defendants. The standard for who will get money, he said, is defined broadly by those who experienced “weaponization.”

Dunn, a Black 15-year veteran of the police force that ⁠protects U.S. lawmakers, has been vocal about the physical and racist abuse he endured during the attack as Trump supporters sought to prevent ⁠Congress from certifying former ‌President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, including before ⁠a bipartisan House of Representatives panel that investigated ​the ‌deadly riot. He has said he battled post-traumatic ​stress disorder ⁠from the event.

During the Capitol attack, Hodges was pinned in a revolving door by a rioter wielding a police shield, a moment that became a viral video. He remains on Washington’s police force and has testified before Congress about his experience.

(Reporting by Jan WolfeEditing ​by Rod Nickel)