Two Washington, DC police officers sued the Trump administration over a $1.776bn compensation fund. The officers, Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges, argued the fund would likely reward participants in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. They sought dissolution to prevent taxpayer money from being disbursed to people they said threatened their lives. The lawsuit claimed the fund would directly finance violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and supporters. Dunn said he was injured and has retired; Hodges said he was nearly crushed by rioters and feared he would not escape alive. The complaint also cited threats and harassment and alleged Trump signaled support for compensating rioters with limited oversight, alongside broad pardons and sentence commutations.
"Two police officers in Washington, DC, have sued the administration of President Donald Trump over its decision to establish a $1.776bn fund to compensate victims of alleged government weaponisation. In their lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges call the fund the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century. They are aiming to have the fund dissolved in order to prevent taxpayer money from being disbursed to participants in the attack against the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."
"If allowed to begin making payments, the Fund will directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters who threatened Plaintiffs' lives that day, and continue to do so, the lawsuit argues. On that day, thousands of Trump supporters descended on Congress in an apparent effort to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost."
"Dunn, a member of the US Capitol Police, has since retired. Hodges, who remains with the Metropolitan Police Department, recalled in the lawsuit being nearly crushed by rioters against a Capitol door. Another officer heard protesters threaten to kill him with his own gun. The officers feared they would not escape the attack alive."
"Their lawsuit argues that Trump has signalled he would like to compensate the January 6 rioters, saying they were treated unfairly by the justice system. The newly created fund, it argues, would allow him to do so with little oversight. Already, on the first day of his second term, Trump issued a blanket pardon to nearly all the participants in the attack, and he commuted the sentences of 14 others."
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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