There’s no shortage of questions surrounding the Trump administration’s controversial new $1.776 billion fund. White House friends and foes alike have wondered aloud about who’ll receive taxpayer-financed checks, who’ll administer the project and whether there will be any congressional or judicial oversight.
But there’s another question hanging overhead: Is the so-called anti-weaponization fund even legal?
On Wednesday morning, former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, perhaps best known to much of the public for his testimony to the bipartisan House Jan. 6 committee, and former Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who also defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s fund. The lawsuit, filed with the Public Integrity Project, seeks to invalidate the Republican administration’s fund, claiming that it emboldens violence against police and rewards sedition.
MS NOW’s Britt Miller spoke to Dunn about the lawsuit and this week’s developments. The decorated officer said:
I had the opportunity to talk with lawyers about this. And we are going to sue to stop this illegal slush fund. Now, obviously, we encourage everybody else to sue. Everybody should, this can’t happen. So, we believe that we, the officers in this suit, will be harmed by this. We have been subjected to countless death threats in addition to all the violence that we faced on Jan. 6. But for just speaking out the truth, I mean, I guarantee you somebody’s watching this right now and typing death threats to us right now. And deaths only continue to embolden and potentially continue to arm a militia that Donald Trump will have on retainer.
Commenting on those expected to benefit from the fund, Dunn added, “These guys are asking for handouts and grifting and just wanting taxpayer money.”
The lawsuit comes one day after former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin appeared on MS NOW and argued that Trump’s fund is “illegal.”
Time will tell whether the new lawsuit gains traction, but as the case moves forward, its existence is a reminder that the “slush fund” controversy is unfolding on multiple fronts, from Capitol Hill, where it is facing bipartisan pushback, to the public debate, to the courts. Watch this space.
This post has been updated to reflect Daniel Hodges’ role in the lawsuit.
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