January 6 commemorative plaque appears in Capitol after years of delay
By Kaanita Iyer, Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
(CNN) — A plaque honoring the heroism of police officers during the January 6, 2021, attack by a mob supportive of President Donald Trump has quietly been installed at the US Capitol after years of delay.
The installation of the plaque early Saturday morning, which was first reported by The Washington Post, did not feature a formal ceremony or remarks. It came years after it was required by federal law to be installed by 2023.
“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,” the plaque reads. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”
It lists the several local police departments and federal agencies that responded that day. Next to it is a QR code that leads to a file with the names of officers who were present.
The plaque has been placed at the end of a hallway, just inside an entrance on the West Front of the Capitol, which is not open to the public.
Since Trump’s return to office, the president and his Republican allies have either ignored the January 6 riot or recast the day’s events and diminished the level of violence that occurred. In one of the first acts of his second term, Trump pardoned over 1,000 rioters who were charged in connection to the attack.
In the absence of a formal plaque, many Democrats had poster copies hanging outside their congressional offices, CNN previously reported.
The office of House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose direction was needed to install the plaque, previously told CNN that the law authorizing the plaque “is not implementable,” but did not elaborate on why.
“If Democrats are serious about commemorating the work of USCP officers, they are free to work with the appropriate committees of jurisdiction to develop a framework for proper vetting and consideration,” a spokesperson for the speaker said at the time.
Rep. Joe Morelle — the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which handles the chamber’s administrative functions — celebrated the installation in a statement, saying, “Speaker Johnson may have tried to bury the January 6 plaque, but it’s finally in the Capitol. We fought hard to permanently honor the law enforcement officers who defended us and this institution during a deadly riot incited by the President.”
Last year, two police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6 sued the Architect of the Capitol to have a memorial be installed.
In the lawsuit, Harry Dunn, formerly of the US Capitol Police, and DC Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges slammed Trump’s allies in Congress and beyond for attempting to recast the events of January 6 and accused them of “rewriting” history.
Hodges, in a post on X on Saturday, called the installation “a fine stopgap.”
“(T)hey are not yet within full compliance of the law and the weight of a judicial ruling would help secure the memorial against future tampering. Our lawsuit persists,” Hodges wrote in the post.
According to their lawsuit, the law directs that the plaque be placed “on the western front” of the Capitol.
The now-defunct House January 6 select committee’s final report concluded that Trump incited the violence at the Capitol that day.
This story was updated with additional information.
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CNN’s Annie Grayer, Marshall Cohen and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
