Inset: The plaque honoring law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 (X/House Judiciary Democrats). Background: FILE – In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo violent rioters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol in Washington (AP Photo/John Minchillo).
The Trump administration is “refusing” to display a plaque honoring authorities who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, according to a new lawsuit filed by two police officers, who criticize the move as a “rewriting of history.”
In their lawsuit, former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges accuse President Donald Trump and Republican members of Congress of deliberately declining to hang the plaque — introduced earlier this year and supported by House Judiciary Democrats — despite it being required by federal law.
“To honor the officers who defended them, in 2022, Congress passed a law directing the Architect of the Capitol to install a memorial listing the names of the officers who defended the building and those inside,” the complaint explains. “Yet after the law was passed, the politics around January 6, 2021, changed, and many politicians who once spoke plainly about the dangers of that day began to rewrite its history, and minimize the terror of the attack. Four years since Congress passed the law, and three years since the deadline for its installation has lapsed, the memorial has not been put up.”
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Dunn and Hodges teamed up with Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, to announce the filing of the lawsuit in Washington, D.C., on Thursday against the Architect of the Capitol.
“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,” the complaint says, referring to the 1998 shooting deaths of two Capitol Police officers. “Meanwhile, though Congress has not placed the memorial to the officers who protected it, members have managed to honor the man who inspired the violence. Since President Trump’s inauguration, bills have been introduced to make his birthday a federal holiday, to rename Dulles International Airport after him, to put his face on the $100 bill (or to create a new $250 bill in his honor), and to carve his face into Mount Rushmore.”
Dunn and Hodges argue that by “refusing to follow the law” by not hanging the plaque, Trump administration officials and Congress are encouraging “this rewriting of history,” per the complaint. “It suggests that the officers are not worthy of being recognized, because Congress refuses to recognize them,” the document charges.
“For their service on January 6, 2021, Officers Dunn and Hodges have been accused of being ‘crisis actors,’ and left-wing conspiracy agents,” the complaint says. “Both continue to regularly receive death threats for their advocacy in holding responsible those who attacked them. Officer Dunn has had to fortify security at his home and now carries or has applied to carry a concealed weapon (as a current member of the Metropolitan Police Department, Officer Hodges carries a service weapon). Officer Dunn continues to be called racial epithets, and now finds it impossible to work to protect the members whose lives he helped saved but who, in part, now refuse to recognize his service. And Officer Hodges has been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety Adjustment Disorder.”
Dunn and Hodges say the alleged “refusal to follow the law” arbitrarily discriminates against them and other officers and violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. They claim to suffer from abuses and problems related to their role in defending the Capitol.
