{"id":152489,"date":"2026-05-20T14:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/20\/capitol-police-officers-sue-to-block-trump-slush-fund-for-rioters\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:45:14","slug":"capitol-police-officers-sue-to-block-trump-slush-fund-for-rioters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/20\/capitol-police-officers-sue-to-block-trump-slush-fund-for-rioters\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol Police Officers Sue To Block Trump Slush Fund For Rioters"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of problems with Trump\u2019s new $1.776 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund,\u201d from the purely performative total, completely unmoored from any legal justification, to the fact that the DOJ refuses to rule out<\/a> writing checks to a convicted child molester who promised his victims \u201cTrump bucks\u201d to keep quiet, the foundational problem is that it exists at all. The fund pilfers taxpayer dollars into a slush fund to compensate Trump\u2019s followers \u2014 including and especially January 6 rioters \u2014 overseen by Trump\u2019s personal lawyer Todd Blanche<\/a>. The administration\u2019s dubious legal justification to commandeer these funds for rioting child molesters is to settle a lawsuit Donald Trump brought against the IRS that he controls.<\/p>\n

Trump the individual sued. Trump the president ordered the government to surrender. Trump the individual then seized the funds for his own purposes. Infinite money glitch! \u201cI am supposed to work out a settlement with myself,\u201d Trump told reporters at the time, proving he\u2019s capable of remarkable candor when describing corruption.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how administrative law is supposed to work. And now two law enforcement officers who tried to push back the rioters have sued to put a stop to it.<\/p>\n

Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and current Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges \u2014 the latter best known to the public as the cop caught in the Capitol doorway as rioters tried to crush him \u2014 filed suit Wednesday<\/a> challenging the slush fund. The complaint, brought by the Public Integrity Project\u2019s Brendan Ballou and Samuel Ward-Packard, opens with by noting: \u201cIn the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The settlement plan Trump worked out with himself places $1.776 billion in taxpayer money into a fund administered by a five-member commission. Those members are personally appointed by Trump\u2019s lawyer Blanche and the commission\u2019s decisions are not subject to judicial review. Trump himself gets no money, though the settlement included a waiver that purports to block the federal government from ever going after Trump for *gestures at everything*.<\/p>\n

Count I says DOJ cannot create a new federal commission with the authority to recognize new federal claims and dole out federal money, without congressional action. Blanche purports to sidestep these legal requirements by citing 31 U.S.C. \u00a7 1304, and 28 U.S.C. \u00a7 2414, but these only allow the DOJ to pay to settle federal claims, but they don\u2019t allow the administration to INVENT federal claims and then pay them. Count II says the Judgment Fund itself cannot be tapped because there is no \u201cactual or imminent litigation\u201d \u2014 a byproduct of structuring this as settling Trump\u2019s IRS claim by paying Proud Boys who currently don\u2019t have cognizable legal claims against the government. The DOJ never even entered an appearance<\/em> in the IRS case it\u2019s claiming to settle with this fund.<\/p>\n

Count III quotes Section 4, Clause 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment: <\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It seems as though every legal cause Trump really cares about involves erasing chunks of the Fourteenth Amendment. That\u2019s probably significant. While we don\u2019t know exactly which January 6 rioters will end up making claims on this fund, Trump\u2019s own rhetoric suggests those already convicted of seditious conspiracy would be in line \u2014 directly implicating the Amendment\u2019s language:<\/p>\n

\n

DOJ has authorized the Anti-Weaponization Fund to make payment of monies from
the United States Treasury to the January 6 rioters.<\/p>\n

Those rioters engaged in an act of \u201cinsurrection . . . against the United States\u201d by
attacking the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the lawful certification of a presidential election.<\/p>\n

As a consequence of that conduct, many insurrectionists incurred sizeable debts and
other financial obligations\u2014in particular, legal fees incurred defending against criminal charges
and, for the many convicted, restitution obligations.<\/p>\n

DOJ has now committed the United States to paying those debts and obligations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pretty straightfoward. It\u2019s also ultra vires<\/em> and the plaintiffs seek declaratory judgment.<\/p>\n

The hangup for these plaintiffs will likely be standing. Dunn and Hodges explain that they are listed on a right-wing \u201cretribution list\u201d by name and that Proud Boys have physically followed them through hotel lobbies. Dunn has been swatted, has PTSD, and has had police patrol his house twice a day for over a year. The complaint quotes the death threats, and Enrique Tarrio saying, on the fifth anniversary of January 6, \u201cI want them to pay . . . we need to make an example out of them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Is that enough of a connection to constitute a concrete interest in stopping this policy? The Trump administration has spent its second term betting \u2014 often correctly \u2014 that the federal judiciary will, after enough appeals, find a way to let them do just about anything.<\/p>\n

But someone<\/em> has standing to challenge the theft of taxpayer funds to pay for, as the complaint puts it, \u201ca Potemkin lawsuit, a sham brought about only so that it could be settled.\u201d If it\u2019s not the officers facing the prospect of the people threatening to kill them getting millions of our tax dollars, then whoever does have standing needs to get their own lawsuit together.<\/p>\n

(Complaint on the next page\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Capitol Police Officers Sue To Block Trump Slush Fund For Rioters<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of problems with Trump\u2019s new $1.776 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund,\u201d from the purely performative total, completely unmoored from any legal justification, to the fact that the DOJ refuses to rule out<\/a> writing checks to a convicted child molester who promised his victims \u201cTrump bucks\u201d to keep quiet, the foundational problem is that it exists at all. The fund pilfers taxpayer dollars into a slush fund to compensate Trump\u2019s followers \u2014 including and especially January 6 rioters \u2014 overseen by Trump\u2019s personal lawyer Todd Blanche<\/a>. The administration\u2019s dubious legal justification to commandeer these funds for rioting child molesters is to settle a lawsuit Donald Trump brought against the IRS that he controls.<\/p>\n

Trump the individual sued. Trump the president ordered the government to surrender. Trump the individual then seized the funds for his own purposes. Infinite money glitch! \u201cI am supposed to work out a settlement with myself,\u201d Trump told reporters at the time, proving he\u2019s capable of remarkable candor when describing corruption.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how administrative law is supposed to work. And now two law enforcement officers who tried to push back the rioters have sued to put a stop to it.<\/p>\n

Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and current Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges \u2014 the latter best known to the public as the cop caught in the Capitol doorway as rioters tried to crush him \u2014 filed suit Wednesday<\/a> challenging the slush fund. The complaint, brought by the Public Integrity Project\u2019s Brendan Ballou and Samuel Ward-Packard, opens with by noting: \u201cIn the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The settlement plan Trump worked out with himself places $1.776 billion in taxpayer money into a fund administered by a five-member commission. Those members are personally appointed by Trump\u2019s lawyer Blanche and the commission\u2019s decisions are not subject to judicial review. Trump himself gets no money, though the settlement included a waiver that purports to block the federal government from ever going after Trump for *gestures at everything*.<\/p>\n

Count I says DOJ cannot create a new federal commission with the authority to recognize new federal claims and dole out federal money, without congressional action. Blanche purports to sidestep these legal requirements by citing 31 U.S.C. \u00a7 1304, and 28 U.S.C. \u00a7 2414, but these only allow the DOJ to pay to settle federal claims, but they don\u2019t allow the administration to INVENT federal claims and then pay them. Count II says the Judgment Fund itself cannot be tapped because there is no \u201cactual or imminent litigation\u201d \u2014 a byproduct of structuring this as settling Trump\u2019s IRS claim by paying Proud Boys who currently don\u2019t have cognizable legal claims against the government. The DOJ never even entered an appearance<\/em> in the IRS case it\u2019s claiming to settle with this fund.<\/p>\n

Count III quotes Section 4, Clause 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment: <\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It seems as though every legal cause Trump really cares about involves erasing chunks of the Fourteenth Amendment. That\u2019s probably significant. While we don\u2019t know exactly which January 6 rioters will end up making claims on this fund, Trump\u2019s own rhetoric suggests those already convicted of seditious conspiracy would be in line \u2014 directly implicating the Amendment\u2019s language:<\/p>\n

\n

DOJ has authorized the Anti-Weaponization Fund to make payment of monies from
the United States Treasury to the January 6 rioters.<\/p>\n

Those rioters engaged in an act of \u201cinsurrection . . . against the United States\u201d by
attacking the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the lawful certification of a presidential election.<\/p>\n

As a consequence of that conduct, many insurrectionists incurred sizeable debts and
other financial obligations\u2014in particular, legal fees incurred defending against criminal charges
and, for the many convicted, restitution obligations.<\/p>\n

DOJ has now committed the United States to paying those debts and obligations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pretty straightfoward. It\u2019s also ultra vires<\/em> and the plaintiffs seek declaratory judgment.<\/p>\n

The hangup for these plaintiffs will likely be standing. Dunn and Hodges explain that they are listed on a right-wing \u201cretribution list\u201d by name and that Proud Boys have physically followed them through hotel lobbies. Dunn has been swatted, has PTSD, and has had police patrol his house twice a day for over a year. The complaint quotes the death threats, and Enrique Tarrio saying, on the fifth anniversary of January 6, \u201cI want them to pay . . . we need to make an example out of them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Is that enough of a connection to constitute a concrete interest in stopping this policy? The Trump administration has spent its second term betting \u2014 often correctly \u2014 that the federal judiciary will, after enough appeals, find a way to let them do just about anything.<\/p>\n

But someone<\/em> has standing to challenge the theft of taxpayer funds to pay for, as the complaint puts it, \u201ca Potemkin lawsuit, a sham brought about only so that it could be settled.\u201d If it\u2019s not the officers facing the prospect of the people threatening to kill them getting millions of our tax dollars, then whoever does have standing needs to get their own lawsuit together.<\/p>\n

(Complaint on the next page\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Capitol Police Officers Sue To Block Trump Slush Fund For Rioters<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of problems with Trump\u2019s new $1.776 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund,\u201d from the purely performative total, completely unmoored from any legal justification, to the fact that the DOJ refuses to rule out writing checks to a convicted child molester who promised his victims \u201cTrump bucks\u201d to keep quiet, the foundational problem is that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}