It’s been over five years since the events of January 6th, 2021, which the legacy media called an “insurrection” while anyone with any self-awareness realizes was nothing more than hooliganism, and boy, are the brickbats still flying. In the latest exchange, two former police officers who were at the Capitol on that day are suing the Trump administration to block the president’s plan to establish a fund to compensate what the administration describes as victims of lawfare and weaponization.
The lawsuit was filed in the federal court in the District of Columbia on Tuesday.
Police officers who came under attack by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s plan to set up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of “weaponization” and “lawfare.”
In the new lawsuit, former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges contend that Trump intends to use the massive bankroll to pay people who organized and participated in the riot.
“Dunn and Hodges did not back down on January 6. Instead, they held the line to defend democracy and the rule of law. They bring this case to do so once again,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Washington, argues that the fund violates the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on use of federal money to “pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”
That would presume that what happened on January 6th, 2021, was an actual act of insurrection or rebellion. Nobody who took part in the events of that day was ever charged under 18 U.S.C. § 2383, “Rebellion or insurrection,” although there were charges ranging from disorderly conduct and trespassing to seditious conspiracy, under 18 U.S.C. § 2384. The 14th Amendment, cited in this complaint, says in Section 4:
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States
This clearly states “insurrection or rebellion,” and makes no mention of seditious conspiracy.
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The details of possible payouts, according to another report, are still being worked out.
Neither Blanche nor the White House has said outright that they would oppose payouts from the fund to those convicted — and since pardoned — of assaulting law enforcement officers. The Justice Department has not disclosed any criteria regarding who would be eligible for a settlement or whether there would be a cap on the amount of money they could receive. Blanche said at a Senate hearing this week that the five-member commission that will make up the fund’s board would supply that information.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward was quick to dump some cold water on the whole thing:
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward called criticism of the fund misguided and premature.
“To all the panicans out there, look, as the associate attorney general, I already have the authority to settle any claim that is brought against the United States of America,” Woodward said. “I think that it’s way, way, way too early for us to rush to judgment on whether this was a good or a bad idea or to describe it as a slush fund, or really even to criticize it … because there’s not been a single claim filed, there’s not been a single payment made.”
It’s early, yes, but it seems one of the primary arguments against this lawsuit will end up being constitutional, depending on a strict interpretation of the 14th Amendment, and the fact that not one of the J6 protestors was charged under the statute defining what that amendment plainly calls out: Insurrection or rebellion.
You can read the filed suit here.
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