Injured by Police Force on the West Plaza?

If you were on the West Plaza, west terrace, west steps, or west lawn of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and were struck by police weapons, exposed to chemical munitions, pepper spray, OC gas, CS gas, or otherwise injured by law enforcement force, fill out the FTCA Standard Form 95 now to start your claim.

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LATEST UPDATE

New Filing: On March 27, 2026, Sullivan et al. v. United States of America, Case No. 5:26-cv-00220-PGB-PRL, was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Ocala Division, under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671–2680. This is the court-identified remedy for West Plaza J6ers after DOJ argued, and the court accepted, that the earlier 42 USC 1983 case had to proceed under the FTCA.

The complaint seeks money damages for West Plaza protesters who were struck by weapons, exposed to chemicals, or directly assaulted by law enforcement personnel. It brings claims for negligence, assault, battery, and negligent supervision and control, alleging that U.S. Capitol Police and D.C. Metropolitan Police launched chemical munitions, pepper spray, OC gas, CS gas, impact projectiles, and other force into a peaceful crowd without warnings, and that police later admitted on video that munitions were "hitting innocent people."

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January 6, 2026: WhiteHouse.gov published an official J6 page acknowledging the truth that many January 6 defendants were "unfairly targeted, overcharged," "not protected," "punished to cover incompetence," and "peaceful protesters treated as insurrectionists" while "exercising their First Amendment rights." The page also says Pelosi's committee worked to "fabricate an 'insurrection' narrative" while official records documented security failures. For West Plaza claimants, that official record matters because the FTCA complaint is built on the same truth: peaceful demonstrators were injured by government force before the crowd was blamed for the chaos that followed.

June 26, 2025: The 42 USC 1983 civil-rights case was dismissed after DOJ argued that the United States and federal defendants could not be sued under 42 USC 1983 and that the proper path for police-assault claims outside the Capitol was the Federal Tort Claims Act. Judge Cooper accepted the alternate-remedy position and dismissed the case, but that dismissal also created the road map for the new FTCA complaint: file administrative Form 95 claims, wait six months or a denial or no final disposition, then sue the United States directly under the FTCA. Plaintiffs maintain the dismissal improperly credited DOJ charging documents and convictions at the Rule 12 stage instead of accepting the complaint's allegations as true; the new filing preserves the West Plaza facts in the forum the court identified.

January 20, 2025: The White House issued Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which specifically cited DOJ having "ruthlessly prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals associated with January 6" and set U.S. policy to "identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct" tied to the "weaponization of law enforcement." For West Plaza claimants, this matters because the suit is not asking for special treatment; it asks the United States to apply its own stated policy of correction and accountability to the police use of force against peaceful protesters.

Background: We timely filed a class action Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit on January 5, 2024, under 42 USC 1983, on behalf of all demonstrators whose First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights were violated by US Capitol and DC Police assaults on the West side of the U.S. Capitol Building. The Biden DOJ sought to dismiss the case on behalf of U.S. Government and named defendants. In 2025, under Interim US Attorneys Ed Martin and Jeannine Pirro, Trump DOJ continued to seek dismissal of these claims in Federal Court against the U.S. Government, Pelosi, and the US Capitol Police among others—in opposition to J6ers seeking justice for the crimes committed against them on January 6, 2021 outside the US Capitol.

Interim US Attorneys Ed Martin and Jeannine Pirro maintained that the government was immune to suit under 42 USC 1983, but that J6 demonstrators assaulted by police outside the Capitol had an alternative remedy under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The DC Federal Judge assigned to the case, Judge Christopher Cooper, concurred with the US Attorneys on alternate remedies, and dismissed the case on June 26, 2025, relying on DOJ charging documents and court convictions to improperly dismiss our stated facts and claims, violating Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 12—which governs dismissals and mandates judging claims at this stage based solely on Plaintiffs' allegations as presented within the four corners of the complaint and viewed in their most favorable light.

Next Steps: No court deadline has been set yet for additional claimants, but time is running out. Once the court addresses class certification and the Form 95 presentment issues, the judge can set deadlines that control who can participate. If you were injured by police force on the West side of the Capitol, fill out the Form 95 now.

This online application will populate an FTCA Standard Form 95 for you with the personal information you provide and the generic information of our claim for you to review and sign, as directed by Attorney Austin Carr who is representing West Plaza J6ers in this action. After you submit, the government has six months under the FTCA to respond; if it denies the claim or fails to make a final disposition after six months, that claim can be ready for the next stage of litigation.

42 USC 1983 Class Action Lawsuit [Dismissed June 26, 2025]

A class action civil rights lawsuit has been filed against the US Capitol Police, DC Metropolitan Police, Mayor Bowser, and Nancy Pelosi for the planned security failures and the illegal assault on early January 6th West Plaza protesters that led to the J6 riot.