Officers who attended Trump’s Jan. 6 rally petition Supreme Courtroom to permit their anonymity in public information

4 Seattle cops who attended President Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, which preceded the assault on the US Capitol that day, have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to maintain their names out of public information associated to the rebel. 

The group, which consists of present and former officers on the Seattle Police Division, initially sued the town of Seattle to ban Jan. 6 investigative information from being launched with out their names redacted. However the Washington Supreme Courtroom dominated in opposition to them in a choice earlier this yr, through which the justices unanimously discovered the officers failed to point out that disclosing their names in public filings would violate their proper to privateness, because the lawsuit claimed.

“At its core, this attraction includes whether or not a authorities company can ignore the chilling impact ensuing from an employer requiring an worker to reveal their off-duty political actions and attendant impressions or motivations related therewith, adopted by widespread dissemination to those that intentionally search this info to topic these public servants to vilification with out the fee of any misconduct in anyway,” reads the most recent petition to the nation’s highest court docket.

Utilizing the pseudonyms John Does 1, 2, 4 and 5 within the petition, the officers have acknowledged they have been current on the Washington, D.C., rally held by Mr. Trump to protest the certification of the 2020 election outcomes and former President Joe Biden’s victory.

Nonetheless, the officers say they didn’t commit any crimes and cite a subsequent investigation by Seattle’s Workplace of Police Accountability that decided the 4 didn’t have interaction “in illegal or unprofessional conduct” on the occasion. That investigation discovered two different Seattle cops who additionally attended the rally had trespassed close to the Capitol, and, on a disciplinary committee’s suggestion, each have been fired. 

The probe acknowledged that attending Mr. Trump’s political gathering was a protected act beneath the First Modification, and the advice was based mostly on the pair’s violation of departmental insurance policies throughout the Seattle Police Division. Of six Seattle officers who attended the rally, it mentioned three had not violated insurance policies and a conduct analysis for a fourth officer who attended was inconclusive.

All six Seattle officers, together with the 4 John Does petitioning the Supreme Courtroom, have been interviewed. In these interviews, the officers apparently “have been required to reveal their political opinions, affiliations, causes for attending the Rally, and their psychological impressions as to the content material of the Rally,” in keeping with the petition, which says they have been “compelled to take part” within the investigation “beneath risk of termination” from the police division. 

The petition’s respondents are the Seattle Police Division and Sam Suekoa, now an legal professional, who filed public information requests as a regulation scholar looking for to reveal paperwork associated to the investigation, such because the interview transcripts. Neil Fox, an legal professional for Sueoka on this case, instructed the Related Press on Saturday that their authorized crew was “reviewing the Does’ movement for a keep.”

CBS Information contacted an legal professional representing the John Does for remark, however didn’t obtain an instantaneous response.

contributed to this report.