Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn has had the same goal for the last five years: Tell the truth about the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and hold Donald Trump accountable for whatever his role was in it.
“I’m so tired and exhausted, but the fight continues to go on,” Dunn told 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 show up has evolved over the last few years.
When he was still on the force, Dunn was one of just a handful of officers who willingly came forward in the wake of the attack to testify publicly about the harrowing experience he endured defending the Capitol. He often appeared on television to push back against conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 and spent years going in and out of D.C. courtrooms, offering sworn testimony about his experience.
Dunn was an integral witness for the government when the Oath Keepers’ seditious conspiracy trial unfolded in 2022, ultimately blowing apart claims by members of the extremist organization that they were “helping” him and other officers to quell the mob that day.
He was deeply frustrated when Trump’s victory in the 2024 election put an end to former special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal case against Trump. The case was dismissed without prejudice, which means it can technically be brought again. It’s a long shot, but Dunn is an optimist.
“There’s still an opportunity somewhere down the line for accountability to be had, in a legal sense,” he said.
Regardless of what does — or does not — happen in federal court, Dunn said he can continue to push back “against the lies and whitewashing.” Trump has repeatedly claimed, including on Tuesday, that Jan. 6, 2021, was a “day of love” or that people lawfully prosecuted and convicted for crimes at the Capitol were “hostages” and “political prisoners.” One of Trump’s first official acts during his second term was to pardon everyone convicted of crimes related 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 brought against the Architect of the Capitol over House Republicans’ failure to install a plaque commemorating officers injured on Jan. 6 is part of that, he said.
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 said.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Several high-profile Jan. 6 rioters, including the leader of the Proud Boys, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, showed up in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The anniversary event was billed as a chance to memorialize the attack as a peaceful protest and celebrate rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police on Jan. 6 after ignoring police orders to stand down as she tried to climb through the broken glass of the Speaker’s Lobby door.
The group also reportedly had planned on honoring fallen U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died a day after he sustained injuries at the Capitol. (The event was sparsely attended, and according to HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney, by 2 p.m. local time, there had yet to be any mention of Sicknick.)
When first hearing that pardoned rioters planned to honor Sicknick on Tuesday, Dunn’s reaction was blunt.
“They’re full of crap honoring Brian Sicknick,” he said. “They don’t give a damn about him. They don’t.”
He had no interest in discussing or giving attention to Proud Boys traipsing around Washington, either.
“I’m only interested in making sure the people who enabled and supported Donald Trump don’t see office,” he said. “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.”