After the Jan. 6 attack, Congress agreed to install a permanent plaque to honor the law enforcement personnel who helped protect the U.S. Capitol against pro-Trump rioters. By statute, the plaque would list the names of the officers who served; it would be placed on the western side of the building; and it would be in place by March 2023.

That deadline was almost three years ago. The plaque is done, and it’s ready to be installed, but as The Washington Post reported, it’s currently “sitting in a Capitol basement utility room surrounded by tools and maintenance equipment.”,,,,,

In light of this intransigence, two Jan. 6 police officers, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and current Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges, filed a lawsuit over the summer to force congressional leaders to follow the law.

Donald Trump’s Justice Department has weighed in on the case in a wildly unpersuasive way. NBC News reported:

The Trump Justice Department argued Tuesday that the legally mandated plaque meant to honor the officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6 does not exist, claiming that the current plaque, which remains unhung, doesn’t qualify because it lists 21 law enforcement agencies rather than the names of roughly 3,646 individual officers who responded to the Capitol during the siege.

In other words, the plaque — which, again, is already finished and ready to be installed — highlights the 21 law enforcement agencies that helped defend the Capitol against the assault.,,,,,

But the bottom line remains the same: For all of Trump’s talk about “backing the blue,” the president’s Justice Department is fighting against a simple gesture to honor officers who protected democracy and our seat of government against rioters who’d been fed lies by the president himself.

The case is still pending in federal court. Watch this space.