Police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have asked a federal judge to allow their lawsuit over the long-delayed installation of a plaque honoring their service to continue, days after The Washington Post revealed it was quietly hung at the end of a hallway in the middle of the night.
Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and D.C. police officer Daniel Hodges, who sued last summer after Congress blew past its own installation deadline, argue the placement of the plaque continues to violate federal law. “Hidden from all visitors, the current location is no different than the basement the plaque was kept in for years,” Brendan Ballou, a former federal prosecutor who now works for the Public Integrity Project and is representing Dunn and Hodges, wrote in court filings Tuesday.
Staff with the Architect of the Capitol bolted the plaque just inside an entrance on the west front of the building at 4 a.m. Saturday. The location is not on the public tour route offered through the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, a spokesperson for the center confirmed.
Following The Post’s reporting, U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich asked the officers whether their case could be dismissed. The officers contest the new placement violates not just the text of the law but also its spirit. “Honor is a social — that is, public — recognition,” Ballou wrote in court filings.
The placement, Ballou continued, is the “latest move as part of a years-long effort to keep the plaque, and more generally, the history of January 6, 2021, literally hidden from the public.”
The nighttime installation marked a quiet, covert culmination of a years-long push to honor the police response to the violent mob intent on overturning President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. Trump has since pushed to recast the riot as “a day of love” and its participants as victims of a weaponized justice system.
A spokesperson for the Architect of the Capitol, which is responsible for the Capitol grounds, did not respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department, representing the Architect of the Capitol in the officers’ lawsuit, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Congress passed a bipartisan measure in 2022 that mandated the installation of a memorial plaque within a year. Instead, progress stalled under House Republican leadership and the plaque sat out of sight in the Capitol basement, surrounded by maintenance equipment. It lists the names of almost two dozen local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and reads: “On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten.”
Democrats had pressed for installation in the years since, arguing that the only thing keeping the plaque from public view was that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had yet to instruct the Architect of the Capitol to install it. A spokesperson for Johnson at the time argued that the plaque was “not implementable” because of the vague way it was written, The Post previously reported.
Dunn and Hodges last summer sued the Architect of the Capitol, seeking a court order to compel that the plaque be installed after Congress missed its own deadline of mid-March 2023. The duo, according to federal court records, wanted “to honor the women and men who saved the lives of those inside the building, and to ensure that the history of this attack on the Capitol — and on democracy — is not forgotten.” The Justice Department under Trump has maintained in litigation that the plaque does not comply with the law because it lists the departments that responded, not the individual officers.
Dunn, who served with U.S. Capitol Police for 15 years before leaving in 2023, said that the installation is a step in the right direction but that the requirements stipulated in the 2022 law remain unmet, which is why he and his attorney have asked the judge to allow their lawsuit to proceed.
“Absent the continued pressure of litigation, it is unlikely that the plaque will ever find a permanent — and legally required — home,” the officers argued in a Tuesday court filing.
The 2022 law states the plaque should be placed “at a permanent location on the western front,” which the lawsuit contends must mean the outside of the building. The plaque was placed inside. On the wall near the plaque, staff on Saturday affixed a QR code titled “Honored Law Enforcement.” A scan with a smartphone takes the viewer to a 45-page list of names.
“Unescorted visitors cannot access this part of the building, and would be removed from the Capitol if they were discovered,” Dunn wrote in a declaration also filed in court Tuesday.
In January, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) secured unanimous passage of a resolution ordering the display of the plaque on the Senate side of the Capitol building “until the plaque can be placed in its permanent location.” The effort marked a rare moment of bipartisanship in the legacy of the attack. Five people died during the attack or its immediate aftermath. In addition, at least four officers later died by suicide. More than 140 officers were injured. Many Republicans have minimized the riot and its consequences, and Trump continues to spread the falsehood that he won the 2020 election.
“With this plaque, we take an important step forward to honor the sacrifices of these heroes, commit to remembering the work that day to secure the peaceful transfer of power, and ensure we never forget the truth about this attack on our democracy,” Merkley said in a statement after The Post revealed its installation.
For now, the plaque is bolted to a wall in a granite hallway reached by a set of stairs leading down from the Crypt, the vaulted space beneath the Rotunda. At the top of the stairs sits a sign stating: “Closed to all tours.”
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