By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — Law enforcement officers who protected the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, sued the Trump administration on Wednesday to block implementation of a newly created $1.8 billion fund for allies of President Donald Trump who say they were unfairly investigated by previous administrations.

The lawsuit brought in federal court by Harry Dunn, a former member of the US Capitol Police, and Daniel Hodges, a current member of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department, claims that the new fund runs afoul of the US Constitution and federal law.

The men say the fund will potentially be used to pay individuals who participated in the attack and finance various paramilitary organizations in the country.

“If allowed to begin making payments, the fund will directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters who threatened plaintiffs’ lives that day, and continue to do so,” lawyers for Dunn and Hodges wrote in the 29-page suit.

“Militias like the Proud Boys will use money from the fund to arm and equip themselves. The fund will grant their pasts acts of violence legal imprimatur,” the lawsuit claims.

“And, most chillingly, the fund will signal to past and potential future perpetrators of violence against Dunn and Hodges that they need not fear prosecution; to the contrary, they should expect to be rewarded,” the lawsuit reads. “Dunn and Hodges did not back down on January 6. Instead, they held the line to defend democracy and the rule of law. They bring this case to do so once again.”

The lawsuit asks a federal judge in DC to declare the administration’s decision to set up the fund is unlawful and for an order blocking officials from taking steps to implement it and requiring any payments already made from it to be reversed.

The new fund, the men allege, violates a provision of the 14th Amendment that bars the government from paying debts “incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.” They also say that officials violated federal rulemaking laws by creating the fund, which stemmed from a $10 billion lawsuit Trump, in his individual capacity, brought against the Internal Revenue Service earlier this year.

That law, the Administrative Procedure Act, allows individuals to challenge some government decision-making. Lawyers for Dunn and Hodges say that officials violated it by not following a different provision of federal law that says the government can only settle lawsuits after the attorney general agrees that such payment “is in the interest of the United States.”

“The payment of $1.776 billion into the Anti-Weaponization Fund to settle Trump v. IRS was patently not ‘in the interest of the United States,’” they wrote in the lawsuit. “Rather, it was a misappropriation of taxpayer funds orchestrated by the President to reward his allies and the rioters who committed violence in his name.”

The case comes a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was once Trump’s personal attorney, in testimony to a Senate appropriations panel, declined to rule out the possibility whether those who assaulted law enforcement officers on January 6 would be eligible for a payout.

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By Michael Williams, Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

(CNN) — Barney Frank, the barrier-breaking former Congressman who helped draft reforms that sought to rein in an unruly financial industry in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, has died. He was 86.

His sister Doris Breay confirmed his death to CNN, saying, “he was a wonderful brother. I was lucky to be his sister. I will miss him.”

Frank entered hospice care earlier this year where he underwent treatment for congestive heart failure, according to media reports.

The former congressman built a reputation on Capitol Hill for being an outspoken progressive stalwart. He was also the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay. Frank’s decision to publicly disclose his sexuality in 1987 made him the most prominent gay man in Washington during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

While many thought it could be a political career-ender at the time, Frank would later say he regretted he did not come out sooner.

“I am a much better openly gay man than I was a closeted one,” he told Men’s Journal in a 2017 interview.

Frank advocated for LGBTQ causes throughout his career and was instrumental in helping repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy prohibiting gay servicemembers from openly serving in the military. In 2012, he became the first sitting member of Congress to marry a partner of the same sex while in office.

Legislatively, he made arguably his biggest mark in the world of finance. He became the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee in 2003, and in 2007, became the committee’s chairman. His position put him at the center of the congressional response to the subprime mortgage crisis that led to the greatest global financial meltdown since the Great Depression. Frank pushed for greater regulation of banks and stronger consumer protections to avoid a repeat of the debacle.

He also backed the federal bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which included a line of credit the government sponsored entities could tap, if needed.

“We are putting the money there … saying we know that we’re taking steps so that they’re not going to face this problem in the future,” Frank told CNN in mid-July 2008.

“Fannie and Freddie suffered not from their own decisions, but from the bad mortgage decisions that have been made throughout the economy. We’re not going to have those in the future. So, it is not simply hoping, it is taking action to make it less likely that they’ll be the problem,” he said.

Frank was a chief architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010.

Dodd-Frank established the framework for banking regulation and consumer protection as we know them today. The law’s aim was to introduce greater oversight of financial institutions, especially those judged to be “too big to fail.” It established new liquidity requirements and stress tests for banks; as well as the Volcker Rule, which limits banks’ ability to make risky investments with customer deposits.

Dodd-Frank also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was charged with preventing financial abuse and standing up for consumers in the financial sector.

Since then, many Dodd-Frank provisions have been challenged in court and in Congress, and Republicans have sought to roll back many financial services regulations, including dismantling the CFPB.

With a larger-than-life personality, Frank’s sharp tongue and sarcastic wit made him sought after by journalists and, even after

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