Officers who attended Trump's Jan. 6 rally petition Supreme Court to allow their anonymity in public records
Four Seattle police officers who attended President Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6, 2021, which preceded the attack on the United States Capitol that day, have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to keep their names out of public records related to the insurrection.
The group, which consists of current and former officers at the Seattle Police Department, initially sued the city of Seattle to prohibit Jan. 6 investigative records from being released without their names redacted. But the Washington Supreme Court ruled against them in a decision earlier this year, in which the justices unanimously found the officers failed to show that disclosing their names in public filings would violate their right to privacy, as the lawsuit claimed.
"At its core, this appeal involves whether a government agency can ignore the chilling effect resulting from an employer requiring an employee to disclose their off-duty political activities and attendant impressions or motivations associated therewith, followed by widespread dissemination to those who deliberately seek this information to subject these public servants to vilification without the commission of any misconduct whatsoever," reads the latest petition to the nation's highest court.
Using the pseudonyms John Does 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the petition, the officers have acknowledged they were present at the Washington, D.C., rally held by Mr. Trump to protest the certification of the 2020 election results and former President Joe Biden's victory.
However, the officers say they did not commit any crimes and cite a subsequent investigation by Seattle's Office of Police Accountability that determined the four did not engage "in unlawful or unprofessional conduct" at the event. That investigation found two other Seattle police officers who also attended the rally had trespassed near the Capitol, and, on a disciplinary committee's recommendation, both were fired.
The probe recognized that attending Mr. Trump's political gathering was a protected act under the First Amendment, and the recommendation was based on the pair's violation of departmental policies within the Seattle Police Department. Of six Seattle officers who attended the rally, it said three had not violated policies and a conduct evaluation for a fourth officer who attended was inconclusive.
All six Seattle officers, including the four John Does petitioning the Supreme Court, were interviewed. In those interviews, the officers apparently "were required to disclose their political beliefs, affiliations, reasons for attending the Rally, and their mental impressions as to the content of the Rally," according to the petition, which says they were "compelled to participate" in the investigation "under threat of termination" from the police department.
The petition's respondents are the Seattle Police Department and Sam Suekoa, now an attorney, who filed public records requests as a law student seeking to disclose documents related to the investigation, such as the interview transcripts. Neil Fox, an attorney for Sueoka in this case, told the Associated Press on Saturday that their legal team was "reviewing the Does' motion for a stay."
CBS News contacted an attorney representing the John Does for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
