DOJ says Jan. 6 claims are time-barred under Federal Tort Claims Act

by Lisa Rubin | Aug 5, 2026 | News Analysis

The claims brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act — which allows for the recovery of damages for injuries caused by federal agencies and employees — don’t always raise eyebrows, much less grab national headlines. Ranging from slip-and-falls on government property to allegations of medical negligence by prison doctors, the claims usually fly under the radar.

But a brief the Justice Department filed in a Florida district court yesterday centers on a different, much newsier type of claim: those of a proposed class of 30 plaintiffs who allege injuries due to “excessive police force” on Jan. 6, 2021, and who therefore say they deserve compensation. 

Highlighted first by Politico’s Kyle Cheney, it might have escaped public notice entirely. In this case, the plaintiffs allege that on Jan. 6, “the police indiscriminately launched explosive munitions, chemical agents, and impact projectiles into a peaceful crowd and physically assaulted” people who had gathered on the grounds of the Capitol. 

They are asking that court to award them unspecified money damages under the FTCA because, as a direct result of the police’s alleged negligence and assault, they suffered one or more of the following: “bodily injury and resulting pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, severe emotional distress and psychological trauma, mental anguish, inconvenience, loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, expense of hospitalization, medical and nursing care and treatment, loss of earnings, loss of ability to earn money, and aggravation of a previously existing condition.”

But interestingly, one of the department’s arguments as to why that case should actually be dismissed could explain why Trump and his allies sought to create the now dead — at least according to

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