On June 12, 2025, two police officers who bravely defended the U.S. Capitol during the violent January 6, 2021, insurrection filed a federal lawsuit to compel Congress to install a long-overdue memorial plaque honoring law enforcement officers who protected the building that day.
Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, and Daniel Hodges, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department, are suing the Architect of the Capitol, Thomas Austin, accusing the agency responsible for maintaining the Capitol of violating a 2022 law that mandated the installation of a commemorative plaque. The law, signed by then-President Joe Biden, required the plaque to be displayed on the West Front of the Capitol within one year of enactment — a deadline that passed in 2023 without the memorial being installed.
The lawsuit highlights a troubling political backdrop, alleging that the failure to install the plaque is part of a broader effort by former President Donald Trump and his congressional allies to rewrite the history of the January 6 attack and minimize the violence that unfolded. “By refusing to follow the law and honor officers as it is required to do, Congress encourages this rewriting of history,” the complaint states. “It suggests that the officers are not worthy of being recognized, because Congress refuses to recognize them.”
More than 140 police officers were injured during the riot, which saw a mob of Trump supporters storm the Capitol in a desperate attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Five officers later died from injuries sustained in the attack. Hundreds of attackers were prosecuted, but the lawsuit asserts that President Trump pardoned nearly all of them on his first day back in the White House, including those accused of assaulting law enforcement officers.
During the assault, Dunn is said to have protected injured officers, while Hodges was kicked in the chest and had someone attempt to gouge out his eyes. Both officers have endured severe physical and psychological trauma since that day. Hodges was caught in a door frame amid the chaos, gas mask ripped off and helmet dislodged as rioters overwhelmed police lines. Dunn, who is Black, has faced racial slurs from rioters and fortified security at his home due to ongoing threats. Both officers have been labeled “crisis actors” and conspiracy theorists by some, and they continue to receive death threats for holding rioters accountable.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and names the Architect of the Capitol as the defendant. In April 2025, Austin testified before a House subcommittee that he had not received instructions from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to install the plaque. Johnson, who controls modifications to the House side of the Capitol, has not provided guidance, and when asked about the plaque in March 2025, he replied, “I honestly don’t know. Not on my radar right now.” Neither his office nor Austin’s has responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
The plaque itself has been completed and is currently in storage on the Capitol campus. Rather than listing individual officers, it honors the law enforcement agencies that responded on January 6 and features an image of the Capitol’s West Front alongside a dedicatory message: “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.”
Democratic lawmakers have been vocally pressing for the plaque’s installation. During National Police Week in May 2025, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others called out Republican colleagues for blocking the memorial’s placement. Rep. Joseph Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, unveiled a replica of the plaque outside his office and, along with Reps. Jamie Raskin and Jim McGovern, circulated a letter encouraging House Democrats to display poster replicas of the plaque until the official one is installed.
Raskin, who led former President Trump’s impeachment over the insurrection, criticized the delay sharply, saying the efforts of officers who defended the Capitol have been “submerged and suppressed by Speaker Johnson and Donald Trump.” He pointed to Trump’s sweeping pardons of rioters and the recent $5 million settlement by the Department of Justice in a wrongful death case brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter fatally shot during the attack, as evidence of a “complete, topsy-turvy, moral inversion” surrounding the events of January 6.
Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges, who have been outspoken about their experiences, joined Raskin in his Maryland office on the day of the lawsuit filing to discuss the memorial and their legal campaign. Dunn, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Maryland’s 3rd District in 2024, expressed frustration that “asking nicely” and political pressure failed to secure recognition for the officers. “It’s unfortunate that we had to file a lawsuit to compel Congress to follow their own law, but here we are,” he said.
The lawsuit also invokes the constitutional Equal Protection Clause, arguing that the failure to honor the January 6 officers while memorials exist for other law enforcement tragedies is discriminatory. “While Congress has installed a memorial to other officers who died in a different tragedy, it has not installed the plaque to honor those who defended the Capitol on January 6,” the complaint notes.
This legal battle is poised to become a new flashpoint in the ongoing political divide over the legacy of January 6. The insurrection’s memory remains deeply contested, with some Republicans downplaying the violence or echoing Trump’s false claims about the election. Meanwhile, officers like Dunn and Hodges continue to live with the physical and emotional scars from that day, seeking recognition not just for themselves but for the truth about what happened.
As the lawsuit proceeds, it underscores a broader struggle over how the nation remembers January 6 — whether as an attack on democracy that must be condemned and commemorated, or as a day whose history some would rather rewrite or forget.
