Ex-Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn Slams ‘Lies’ About Jan. 6 | EUROtoday

Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn has had the identical purpose for the final 5 years: Tell the reality concerning the assault on Jan. 6, 2021, and maintain Donald Trump accountable for no matter his function was in it.

“I’m so tired and exhausted, but the fight continues to go on,” Dunn informed HuffPost. “We’re always having, it seems, to show up, just a few people, to remind America or push back against politicians saying, ‘We need to move on from Jan. 6.’ But we can’t move on until we acknowledge what happened correctly and without this administration trying to lie and rewrite what happened that day.”

What it means to point out up has developed over the previous few years.

When he was nonetheless on the pressure, Dunn was certainly one of only a handful of officers who willingly got here ahead within the wake of the assault to testify publicly concerning the harrowing expertise he endured defending the Capitol. He usually appeared on tv to push again towards conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 and spent years going out and in of D.C. courtrooms, providing sworn testimony about his expertise.

Dunn was an integral witness for the federal government when the Oath Keepers’ seditious conspiracy trial unfolded in 2022, in the end blowing aside claims by members of the extremist group that they have been “helping” him and different officers to quell the mob that day.

He was deeply annoyed when Trump’s victory within the 2024 election put an finish to former particular counsel Jack Smith’s prison case towards Trump. The case was dismissed with out prejudice, which implies it will possibly technically be introduced once more. It’s a protracted shot, however Dunn is an optimist.

“There’s still an opportunity somewhere down the line for accountability to be had, in a legal sense,” he stated.

Regardless of what does — or doesn’t — occur in federal court docket, Dunn stated he can proceed to push again “against the lies and whitewashing.” Trump has repeatedly claimed, together with on Tuesday, that Jan. 6, 2021, was a “day of love” or that individuals lawfully prosecuted and convicted for crimes on the Capitol have been “hostages” and “political prisoners.” One of Trump’s first official acts throughout his second time period was to pardon everybody convicted of crimes associated to Jan. 6, and he claimed all of them had been egregiously wronged by the Justice Department.

A lawsuit Dunn and Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges introduced towards the Architect of the Capitol over House Republicans’ failure to put in a plaque commemorating officers injured on Jan. 6 is a part of that, he stated.

Rejecting such a plaque is “a continuation of them trying to do away with that history and paint Jan. 6 as a favorable event to Donald Trump,” he stated.

Several high-profile Jan. 6 rioters, together with the chief of the Proud Boys, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, confirmed up in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The anniversary occasion was billed as an opportunity to memorialize the assault as a peaceable protest and have fun rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police on Jan. 6 after ignoring police orders to face down as she tried to climb by way of the damaged glass of the Speaker’s Lobby door.

The group additionally reportedly had deliberate on honoring fallen U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died a day after he sustained accidents on the Capitol. (The occasion was sparsely attended, and based on HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney, by 2 p.m. native time, there had but to be any point out of Sicknick.)

When first listening to that pardoned rioters deliberate to honor Sicknick on Tuesday, Dunn’s response was blunt.

“They’re full of crap honoring Brian Sicknick,” he stated. “They don’t give a damn about him. They don’t.”

He had little interest in discussing or giving consideration to Proud Boys traipsing round Washington, both.

“I’m only interested in making sure the people who enabled and supported Donald Trump don’t see office,” he stated. “People who are running for office around the country that are supporters of Donald Trump and toting a MAGA endorsement, I want to get them out of office. That’s what accountability looks like to me now.”