On June 25, 2025, following protests by the American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT) and other groups at the U.S. Capitol, a claim (archived) circulated online that Capitol Police officers arrested wheelchair users attending the protest, handcuffing them using zip ties.
(X user @CalltoActivism)
One video, viewed 1.5 million times at the time of this writing, showed Capitol Police officers escorting three wheelchair users into an elevator. The wheelchair users wore white restraints that resembled zip ties around their wrists.
The claim circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Reddit (archived) and Bluesky (archived).
The United States Capitol Police Public Information Office (PIO) told Snopes via email that they arrested 34 people at the June 25 protest — 33 of them for "illegally demonstrating inside the Russell Senate Office Building." According to the PIO, the zip tie-like "flex cuffs" were "frequently used by our folks." One video (archived) of the protest, posted to X by White House and Congress reporter Ross Ketschke, showed an officer putting a flex cuff on a protester using a wheelchair. Therefore, we rate this claim true.
We reached out to ADAPT to ask them for their account of the events of the day and await a reply.
The Capitol Police PIO said the force arrested 33 people under the Code of the District of Columbia's § 22–1307 on "Crowding, obstructing, or incommoding." Officers arrested one more person for "crossing a police line outside," bringing the total to 34.
The PIO said, "It is against the law to protest inside the Congressional Buildings," and that "there are other places on Capitol Grounds where people can lawfully demonstrate without issue."
According to reports on the protest, attendees were protesting proposed cuts to Medicaid in U.S. President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Trump administration's proposed budget reconciliation bill.
At the time of this writing, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough was in the process of combing through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, striking out provisions that violated the Byrd Rule. This rule said that reconciliation bills (a legislative process that Republicans were using for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) could only contain provisions on "fiscal issues."
MacDonough has the power to reject provisions within a reconciliation bill that breach the Byrd Rule. She had already rejected some provisions relating to Medicaid at the time of this writing.
The bill passed the House of Representatives in May but had not yet faced a vote in the Senate.
Trump previously said he wanted the bill "on his desk" and ready to sign into law on July 4.