As supporters of President Donald Trump took to the streets of D.C. this weekend to demonstrate against unfounded claims of a “stolen election,” clashing with counterprotesters, one local establishment was again at the center of many headlines: Harry’s.

Four people were stabbed near the bar on Saturday and transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. As of Monday, a 29-year-old D.C. man and a 39-year-old man from Minnesota had been arrested in connection with the incident, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. This marks the third time Harry’s has landed in news reports in recent months over its connection to Trump supporters, large crowds gathered there, and more.

D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration slapped the bar with $2,000 in fines for failing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 restrictions in November, after scores of pro-Trump guests dined there maskless last month on a day of protests in support of the president. And in October, a video went viral showing maskless patrons — who were drinking nearly shoulder to shoulder — chanting “back the blue” as four Metropolitan Police Department officers walked through the packed bar. That video even got a retweet from Trump himself.

So what’s the deal with Harry’s? The bar, which opened in 1994 and leases its space from the historic Hotel Harrington, has become a go-to spot for pro-Trump groups in recent years, in part because of its less pricey drinks and close proximity to the Trump International Hotel, another popular, though more expensive, watering hole for the president’s supporters.

Republican political consultant and commentator Harlan Hill told Washingtonian in January, “For us, it’s more of an after-hours place. After the Trump closes, we’ll typically end up there if we’re going to have a late night. You’ll see familiar faces: other people who do Fox, some congressmen, but it’s not as common as at the Trump.”

Photos and video footage from November 14 show a crowd of primarily white men congregating outside the bar, many dressed in clothes bearing the insignia of the Proud Boys, an all-male organization founded in 2016 that describes its members as “Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the Proud Boys a hate group, a designation that spurred a 2019 defamation lawsuit from the organization. That same year, Proud Boys got a police escort to Harry’s after an altercation outside the White House on July 4 resulted in two arrests.

Local direct action group ShutDownDC issued a statement Sunday, saying that the bar “served as ground zero for violent Trump supporters who came to D.C. to attack residents and attempt to overthrow democracy,” arguing that the establishment had disregarded the city’s COVID-19 regulations and urged ABRA to revoke the business’s liquor license.

ABRA spokesperson Jared Powell said in an email Monday that the bar received “no warnings or citations over the weekend.”

Harry’s owner John Boyle tells DCist in an interview that the bar and restaurant has welcomed “all groups” since its founding, across presidential administrations.

“We don’t ask people who they voted for or what kind of hat they’re wearing,” he says. “They walk in the door, we smile, and we seat them and serve them. We don’t discriminate against anybody.”

Boyle declined to comment more specifically on what he thinks has made Harry’s popular among Trump supporters. He says he decided to close the bar early ahead of the demonstrations this weekend, due concerns about coronavirus, large crowds, and possible violence. He says Harry’s closed after lunch on both Friday and Saturday.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said during a press briefing on Monday that the bar’s early closure was part of discussions the city had with Harry’s prior to the demonstrations. Boyle did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the city’s involvement in the decision.

Boyle says the now-infamous crowds gathering outside Harry’s have made it challenging to comply with some city guidelines, like the reservation system ABC licensees are required to implement to “mitigate concentrated crowding,” though he clarifies that he’s not complaining about the rule.

He says that, in November, Harry’s was in complete compliance with regulations indoors, but that the bar’s sidewalk cafe area was difficult to monitor, as people could step over the velvet ropes that served as a barrier. Boyle has since ordered four-foot-tall vinyl panels to replace the ropes, both to better safeguard the area and to help keep heat in as the weather gets cold.

Case reports obtained by DCist from ABRA’s November visits to Harry’s, however, show that investigators noted violations both inside and outside the establishment.

Harry’s has racked up Phase 2 violations on a total of five separate occasions, according to data from ABRA, including the two that resulted in citations in November. ABRA has also issued Harry’s warnings for failing to keep tables sufficiently distanced and patrons wearing masks, among other issues. The earliest of those violations is from July, when the bar got a verbal warning for insufficient table spacing.

Boyle says Harry’s has “always enforced the regulations,” but wasn’t able to get into specific tactics for the instances that garnered scrutiny this fall. A representative for the Hotel Harrington did not immediately respond to DCist’s questions about the recent COVID-19 restriction violations at Harry’s, or its popularity with Trump supporters.

Prior to the rallies this weekend, Hotel Harrington’s managing director Ann Terry told Washingtonian that the hotel has stayed in its lane when it comes to the bar. “It’s Harry’s responsibility,” she said. “I really don’t keep up with it a lot. We don’t play any part in running things.”

She told the outlet that its potential impact on the hotel’s reputation is “not something we can control, really.”

Raman Santra, a lawyer who runs the bar and nightlife blog Barred in D.C., says prior to Trump taking office, Harry’s was known as a “lower key tourist/downtown office worker hybrid.” He says workers in the service industry and others with late-night jobs have gone there, as many other close-by bars aren’t open late, as have police officers.

He says he’s not surprised by its transformation into a Trump supporter hangout, given that it’s a block and a half away from the Trump International Hotel, but says it’s an outlier among D.C. bars, many of which are very upfront about their support for Democratic politicians on social media.

But given the possibility of Trump launching a 2024 presidential run, and the continued presence of the hotel bearing his name nearby, Santra says, “I think conservatives, right wing people probably will be drawn there and will still go to Harry’s.”

This story has been updated with more information about ABRA violations at Harry’s.