Capitol Police Officers Sue Trump over Slush Fund for Jan. 6 Rioters & Other Allies
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This is democracyow democracynow.org.
3 seconds
I'm Amy Goodman. Two officers who defended the Capitol January 6, 2021 have filed a lawsuit in federal court to10 seconds
block the creation of the nearly $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. Some are calling it a thug fund.19 seconds
Uh
the fund was announced by the Department of Justice earlier this month
as part of a settlement with President Trump and his family. The
president sued28 seconds
his own administration's IRS for $10 billion dollar over the leaking of his tax returns by an employee of a federal37 seconds
contractor. The $1.776 billion fund is intended to make45 seconds
payments to Trump supporters who say they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted by previous administrations.51 seconds
Critics, which includes some Republicans in Congress, have accused Trump of creating a slush fund for his allies,59 seconds
including insurrectionists who joined the January 6th riot at the US capital.1 minute, 3 seconds
Capital Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hajes are bringing the lawsuit because the1 minute, 12 seconds
fund could be used to compensate the capital riers rioters who attack them and put their lives at risk. Both1 minute, 20 seconds
officers say they've faced continuous credible threats ever since. On January 6, 2021, Metropolitan Police Officer1 minute, 29 seconds
Daniel Hajes was nearly crushed to death. In this tape, you hear Officer Hajes as he's pinned against a door by the mob.1 minute, 45 seconds
Back. Coming back. Coming back.2 minutes
The socalled anti-weaponization fund would be overseen by five2 minutes, 7 seconds
commissioners.
First, it was said four of whom would be appointed by the attorney
general. though the attorney general Todd Blanch said he'd appoint2 minutes, 14 seconds
all five to serve at the pleasure of the president. For more, we're joined by Brendan Blue, CEO of the Public2 minutes, 22 seconds
Integrity
Project, representing officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hajes, the police
officer suing the Trump administration over the $ 1.8 billion fund to2 minutes, 31 seconds
compensate Trump's allies. Brendan Belaloo is a former federal prosecutor who himself spent two years prosecuting2 minutes, 38 seconds
January 6 capital riers. His new book is titled When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America's2 minutes, 46 seconds
Secret Justice System. Welcome to Democracy Now. Brendan, start off. I mean, that chilling moment where Hajes2 minutes, 54 seconds
is being crushed in a door as he shouts, screams, um, moans. Talk about what this suit is.3 minutes, 4 seconds
Yeah.
So, let's talk about officers Dun and Hajes specifically. You know, you
talk about that specific moment where officer Hajes was being crushed
in the3 minutes, 12 seconds
door
uh in the tunnel connecting the capital uh to the uh inaugural stage.
He could have died there. Later, he almost had his eyes gouged out by
another rier.3 minutes, 21 seconds
Officer
Dunn was at one point surrounded by riers who were hurling racial
epithets at them. Both of them could have died that day. Um, and the
scary3 minutes, 31 seconds
thing is that the threat to these officers doesn't end on January 6, 2021.3 minutes, 35 seconds
By
the mere fact that they're continuing to speak out about January 6 to
make sure that the history that day is not forgotten or erase, they
continue to3 minutes, 44 seconds
receive
threats, credible threats of violence, credible death threats. And the
real concern that we have with this slush fund that Donald Trump is
creating3 minutes, 53 seconds
is that this is going to be a way to funnel $1.8 8 billion to supporters of the president who have previously3 minutes, 59 seconds
enacted violence in his name and who may be the very ones threatening our clients. So in a very real way, this4 minutes, 7 seconds
slush
fund is about more than just corruption. This is about the personal
safety of these officers who defended the capital on January 6.4 minutes, 16 seconds
So I want to turn now uh to July 2021, months after the attack. The4 minutes, 25 seconds
House
of Representatives Select Committee investigating the January 6th
insurrection. The capital held its first hearing listening to four
testimony of4 minutes, 33 seconds
four officers attacked by Trump supporters while defending the capital.4 minutes, 37 seconds
Uh this is one of the men that you're representing. Brendan uh US Capitol police officer Harry Dunn describing4 minutes, 45 seconds
that racist abuse he and other black officers encountered January 6th. More and more insurrectionists were pouring4 minutes, 53 seconds
into the area by the speaker's lobby near the rotunda and some wearing MAGA hats and shirts that said Trump 2020.5 minutes, 2 seconds
I told them to just leave the capital and in response they yelled, "No, man.5 minutes, 7 seconds
This is our house. President Trump invited us here. We're here to stop the steal.5 minutes, 15 seconds
Joe Biden is not the president. Nobody voted for Joe Biden.5 minutes, 22 seconds
I'm a law enforcement officer and I do my best to keep politics out of my job.5 minutes, 28 seconds
But in this circumstance, I responded, "Well, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my5 minutes, 33 seconds
vote not count? Am I nobody?" That prompted a torrent of racial epithets.5 minutes, 43 seconds
One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, "You hear that, guys? This voted for Joe Biden.5 minutes, 51 seconds
Then the crowd perhaps around 20 people joined in screaming boo.6 minutes, 1 second
No one had ever ever called me a while wearing the uniform of a Capitol police officer.6 minutes, 10 seconds
In the days following the attempted insurrection, other black officers shared with me their own stories of6 minutes, 16 seconds
racial abuse on January 6. One officer told me he had never and in his his6 minutes, 23 seconds
entire 40 years of life been called a to his face and that streak ended on January 6.6 minutes, 31 seconds
Yet another black officer later told me he had been confronted by insurrectionists in the capitol who told6 minutes, 39 seconds
him, "Put your gun down and we'll show you what kind of you really are." That was officer Harry Dunn testifying6 minutes, 48 seconds
before the House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection at the capital.6 minutes, 54 seconds
Um, and this is uh Officer Hodes. On my left was a man with a clear riot shield stolen during the assault. He slammed it7 minutes, 2 seconds
against me and with all the weight of the bodies pushing behind him trapped me.7 minutes, 7 seconds
My
arms were pinned and effectively useless. Trapped against either the
shield on my left or the door frame on my right. With my posture
granting me no7 minutes, 15 seconds
functional
strength or freedom of movement, I was effectively defenseless and
gradually sustaining injury from the increasing pressure of the mob.7 minutes, 25 seconds
Directly
in front of me, a man seized the opportunity of my vulnerability. He
grabbed the front of my gas mask and used it to beat my head against the
door. He switched to pulling it off my7 minutes, 34 seconds
head,
the strap stretching against my skull and straining my neck. He never
enter uttered any words I recognized, but opted instead for guttural
screams.7 minutes, 42 seconds
I remember him foaming at the mouth. He also put his cell phone in his mouth so they had both hands free to assault me.7 minutes, 50 seconds
Eventually,
he succeeded in stripping away my gas mask, and a new rush of exposure
to CS and OC spray hit me. The mob of terrorists were coordinating7 minutes, 58 seconds
their
efforts now, shouting, "Heave, ho!" as they synchronized, pushing their
weight forward, crushing me further against the metal door frame. The
man in8 minutes, 6 seconds
front
of me grabbed my baton that I still held in my hands. And in my current
state, I was unable to retain my weapon. He bashed me in the head and
face with it, rupturing my lip and8 minutes, 14 seconds
adding additional injury to my skull. So that was um Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hajes. So we just heard from8 minutes, 22 seconds
Hajes and Dunn, Brendan Blue, the two men that you represent. Um, if you can talk about Todd Blanch, President8 minutes, 31 seconds
Trump's former personal attorney, now the attorney general, when he himself was questioned by Senator Van Holland8 minutes, 37 seconds
and others, refused to say that they would even rule out those insurrectionists who attacked police.8 minutes, 46 seconds
Talk
about why you believe this fund is illegal. President Trump calls it an
anti-weaponization fund. Others call it a thug fund.8 minutes, 56 seconds
Yeah,
absolutely. So, let's start with what purportedly created this fund in
the first place, which is the lawsuit that you mentioned by Donald Trump9 minutes, 4 seconds
against
his own IRS. Now, to have an actual lawsuit in federal court, you need
what lawyers call a case or controversy. The two sides actually need9 minutes, 13 seconds
to
be opposed to each other. And that just wasn't the case here. Donald
Trump was on one side and his own IRS, which he controls, was on the
other. and that9 minutes, 21 seconds
led
to a sham settlement uh over this potential $10 billion lawsuit. So,
this isn't really even the kind of case that the Department of Justice
could settle.9 minutes, 31 seconds
But
even if it could, the settlement that it purported to reach, this
creation of this weaponization, this slush, this thug fund, whatever you
want9 minutes, 39 seconds
to call it, is not authorized by statute. And what I mean by that is it is functionally the creation of a new9 minutes, 46 seconds
department or agency. And you know, you can't use the fiction of a settlement to create a new government agency. You9 minutes, 54 seconds
know,
Republicans would be pretty mad, for instance, if Barack Obama used the
fiction of a lawsuit to create the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, for instance. It's the same thing here.10 minutes, 3 seconds
This
is the creation of a new agency that the president functionally
controls that he will get to decide how the money is spent and who the
money goes to. Now,10 minutes, 13 seconds
and it could go to himself. Is that right? I mean, this is a settlement with him.10 minutes, 18 seconds
Oh,
absolutely. You know, and they've made clear as part of this broader
settlement, you know, he is going to be completely immune from any
further uh10 minutes, 27 seconds
IRS
investigations. And so, it only makes sense that they would potentially
try to send money to him or to his family members or to his associates.
But10 minutes, 35 seconds
for
us, I want to make clear for your audience, you know, it's not just,
you know, this isn't just a profoundly corrupt slush fund, although it10 minutes, 43 seconds
absolutely
is that. This is a slush fund that will physically endanger our clients
and the people like them because you are very smart to play those
quotes10 minutes, 51 seconds
from
officers Hodgees and Dunn testifying about the dangers that they faced
on January 6th. But they are continuing to face very real dangers by
speaking out about January 6 since then.11 minutes, 3 seconds
The risk that we run is that this slush fund is going to be used to pay the Proud Boys, the Oathkeepers, the very11 minutes, 10 seconds
people
that assaulted these officers and that continue to threaten them and
increase the danger against them because it is going to give a
presidential11 minutes, 18 seconds
endorsement
to these people, saying that not only if they enact violence against
the against the president's enemies, will they be put beyond the reach
of the11 minutes, 26 seconds
law, but they will actually be financially rewarded for doing so.11 minutes, 31 seconds
Brendan Belaloo, before we end, I was wondering if you can talk about the major thesis of your new book, When11 minutes, 39 seconds
Companies Run the Courts, How Forced Arbitration Became America's Secret Justice System.11 minutes, 45 seconds
You're kind to ask. So, America has a secret justice system that surrounds us and yet we know almost nothing about it.11 minutes, 53 seconds
It
is an alternative to the public court system called forced arbitration.
It's a system where instead of having a judge, you have a private
arbitrator that is12 minutes, 1 second
typically or often paid for by the very company that you are trying to sue. Uh proceedings happen in secret and can12 minutes, 8 seconds
almost never be appealed. And so, unsurprisingly, um these courts almost always rule for the companies rather than for the12 minutes, 16 seconds
consumers or the employees. Now, this all matters because we are increasingly being pushed into this private justice12 minutes, 23 seconds
system.
And if it feels like companies are increasingly beyond the reach of the
law, if you're getting scammed by companies, overcharged by companies,12 minutes, 31 seconds
getting
worse customer service, getting discriminated against, hurt, or even
killed by companies, if that seems to be happening more than it used to,
forced12 minutes, 39 seconds
arbitration,
pushing cases outside of our court system and into the secret justice
system that companies largely control, can explain why companies are
getting worse in so many ways.12 minutes, 50 seconds
Brendan
Belaloo, we want to thank you for being with us. CEO of the Public
Integrity Project, representing officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodes,
the police officers suing the Trump administration.13 minutes, 2 seconds
Brendan's new book, When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America's Secret Justice System.13 minutes, 10 seconds
Thanks
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