Tuesday, three more lawsuits were filed by police officers against former President Donald Trump over his part in the terrorist attack against the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, adding to the 10 against Trump that were previously filed as he continues to downplay the violence of that day.
The first of two new suits comes from Capitol Police Officer Marcus Moore, a 10-year veteran of the force who defended lawmakers in the House chamber as the riotous mob stormed the building. Moore’s attorneys are demanding the former president be held accountable.
Moore is seeking compensatory damages for tinnitus he says was caused by explosions inside the Capitol, and for the trauma he suffered after witnessing at least one rioter armed with a gun.
The other lawsuit was filed Tuesday by two officers with the Metropolitan Police Department who were called to back up Capitol Police during the attack.
Officer Bobby Tabron, a 19-year veteran, and Dedivine K. Carter, a five-year veteran, are seeing compensatory damages following physical and emotional injuries.
“At the time of the riot, Trump had not publicly conceded that he had lost his re-election campaign and was instead regularly communicating to his followers that he had prevailed,” the suit reads.
The lawsuit goes on to say that the “insurrectionists were spurred on by Trump’s conduct over many months” and Trump “inflamed, encouraged, incited, directed, and aided and abetted” the mob.
Tabron, Carter, and Moore join James Blassingame, a 17-year veteran, and Sidney Hemby, an 11-year veteran who filed against Trump in March, and another seven officers who filed against him in August.
The suit in August filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law contends that "because of Defendants’ unlawful actions, plaintiffs were violently assaulted, spat on, tear-gassed, bear-sprayed, subjected to racial slurs and epithets, and put in fear for their lives.”
Politico reports that Blassingame, Hemby, and Moore are represented by lawyers from United to Protect Democracy, a progressive nonprofit that has challenged several Trump-era policies.
Tabron and Carter were involved in some of the most fierce fighting that took place that day.
“Officer Tabron was fighting for his life and felt certain he would not survive to make it home alive to his wife or see his family again,” the lawsuit reads. “He wondered when gunfire would erupt and how such a battle if started, would end.”
Moore’s attorneys say he “continues to suffer a severe emotional toll in the wake of the January 6 insurrection,” and “he is haunted by the memory of being attacked, and of the sensory impacts — most particularly the explosions of flashbangs and other devices, as well as the sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes of the attack remain close to the surface.”
Officer Harry Dunn, a 14-year veteran of the force, like other Black officers, endured a torrent of racial slurs on Jan. 6. He endured cruelty. He listened to people tell him—without a hint of irony—that they were there for him as their compatriots kept up a medieval-style assault on his coworkers and friends.
In an interview with Daily Kos, Dunn, who is 6’7”, wasn’t sure on Jan. 6 he would make it home to his family.
“I thought to myself, ‘Y’all are obviously not listening to my orders. I can’t pick up 1,000 people and haul them out of the building. What the hell can I do?’ There was no training for this. People didn’t know what to do. You go through all sorts of training in the police academy and in life, but well, really, I haven’t had insurrection training!”
He told senior staff writer Brandi Buchman that his eyes were burning from chemical sprays, his breathing labored from the same. But he pushed through and he survived. Other officers did not.
“I want to see the truth. Let all the facts come out and like I said, people can make their determinations about this or that and then go from there. Until then, I just want the facts to come out so everybody knows—well, reasonable people know—what the hell really happened,” Dunn said.
“I don't think people have a full understanding of what really happened that day, even reasonable people,” he added.
Trump has continued to defend the mob of MAGA supporters, white supremacists, QAnon-ers, and others.
In September, Trump released a statement saying that those who were being arrested and prosecuted for Jan. 6 were being “persecuted unfairly.”
“Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election. In addition to everything else, it has proven conclusively that we are a two-tiered system of justice. In the end, however, JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!”
Thankfully, despite the epic downplay of the coup, the select committee investigating Jan. 6 has prevailed.
“The Committee has already met with nearly 300 witnesses; we hear from four more key figures in the investigation today. We are conducting multiple depositions and interviews every week,” Rep. Liz Cheney tweeted on Dec. 9. "We have received exceptionally interesting and important documents from a number of witnesses," she added.
But this past weekend on ABC's This Week, Cheney pulled the curtain back a little further, revealing detailed accounts of Trump's actions and inaction as the deadly attack on the U.S. seat of government unfolded.
Here are several quotes in which Cheney paints a picture of exactly where Trump was located, what he was doing, and what those around him were doing:
- "The committee has firsthand testimony now that [Trump] was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television as the assault on the Capitol occurred."
- "We know, as he was sitting there in the dining room next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with him to go on television, to tell people to stop."
- "We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence."
Cheney's revelations are clear indicators of the panel's progress and the information Americans can expect to glean as the committee enters a more public phase of its work.