'Timely, but little else': Cops condemn pardoned Jan. 6 rioters' push for 'inclusive' Capitol memorial plaque as legally baseless sideshow

A erstwhile U.S. Capitol Police serviceman and Metropolitan Police serviceman suing to unit the installation of a Jan. 6 memorial for instrumentality enforcement, a plaque authorized by Congress successful 2022, slammed tribunal filings from 2 convicted and pardoned rioters who the officers accidental are seeking to "relitigate the reality" of that fateful day.

Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges' lawsuit has a straightforward purpose: compelling Architect of the Capitol Thomas Austin to enactment up the plaque arsenic Congress expressly intended.

Brian Mock and Cindy Lou Young, 2 of the galore Jan. 6 convicts that received pardons from President Donald Trump, person since filed motions to intervene successful the case, claiming that their rights are astatine stake.

In mid-June, Mock and Young — the erstwhile convicted for attacking cops and the second for misdemeanors — asserted that immoderate plaque should beryllium "inclusive" and besides "recognize the experiences" of the much than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, including those successful the assemblage who died. For example, Mock and Young argue, Ashli Babbitt — who was shot and killed by a constabulary officer arsenic she climbed done a shattered model wrong the Capitol — should beryllium named successful the memorial.

While Young said she and others person "endured important personal, financial, and intelligence hardships," Mock claimed to person a "direct, idiosyncratic involvement successful ensuring the close humanities practice of that day" — his estimation and his law rights.

In an opposition to these motions to intervene, Dunn and Hodges' lawyers said Tuesday that Mock and Young "have nary plausible claim" and that their involution successful the lawsuit connected adjacent extortion oregon owed process grounds would beryllium a legally baseless sideshow that would lone thin to "cause unnecessary hold and prejudice."

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"Mock and Young's motions are timely, but small else," the filing said. "To statesman with standing, the purported interveners neglect to place immoderate cognizable wounded that they person suffered."

"Unlike the Plaintiffs successful this case, Mock and Young were not the intended beneficiaries of this memorial, and truthful its beingness oregon lack affects them successful lone the astir tenuous ways," the absorption continued.

Beyond standing, the filing added, Mock and Young are "not a protected class" entitled to participate the lawsuit, fto unsocial for the intent of relitigating the "reality of January 6" pursuing their convictions and pardons.

That, the officers said, would beryllium a distraction from the main issue: forcing the Capitol designer to "follow the law" and instal the plaque that Congress has approved.

"This lawsuit is not an accidental to relitigate the world of January 6, but alternatively to compel the Architect of the Capitol to travel the instrumentality and instal the memorial to the officers that served and sacrificed that day," the plaintiffs said. "Mock and Young's motions, and their deficiency of remorse for their crimes, marque wide that they spot this lawsuit arsenic an accidental to recast the past of January 6."

"To let Mock and Young to intervene would distract from the existent ineligible matters astatine hand, and harm the plaintiffs who person already been taxable to truthful galore threats from those who attacked the Capitol, and those who supported those attackers," the filing concluded.

Conrad Hoyt contributed to this report.