Just when it seemed there was nothing more that Donald Trump could do for the people who launched the Jan. 6, 2023, attack in his name, the president broke new ground two weeks ago. During a Newsmax interview, the host asked about a possible “compensation fund” for Jan. 6 rioters who were held accountable for their crimes, and Trump talked about the idea as if it were under serious consideration.
“There’s talk about that,” the Republican said. “A lot of the people that are in the government now talk about it because a lot of the people in government really like that group of people.”
As we discussed soon after, Trump didn’t elaborate on the details, but taken at face value, he appeared to be describing what would effectively be financial rewards to be given to Jan. 6 criminals by the government.
In the days that followed, the White House didn’t shed any additional light on the idea, but as Politico reported, Trump’s Justice Department took a related position in a court filing this week.
Jan. 6 defendants whose convictions were wiped out by President Donald Trump are entitled to a refund of restitution payments they made to cover damage to the Capitol, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
The fact that many Jan. 6 rioters were identified, charged and convicted is well known. The fact that the president pardoned those who attacked the U.S. Capitol in his name is also well known. What much of the public might not know, however, is that Jan. 6 criminals also had to pay financial penalties as part of their prosecutions.
As a USA Today report explained, “Most defendants convicted for the Capitol insurrection were required to pay restitution to the Architect of the Capitol, who maintains the building and grounds, to help cover the costs of repairing the estimated $3 million in damage. Those convicted of felonies typically paid $2,000 and those convicted of misdemeanors typically paid $500.”
There’s still some question as to just how much money has been recovered, but CBS News last year concluded that the total was roughly $437,000 — a far cry from $3 million.
Five years later, however, the Trump administration apparently wants the money to start flowing in the opposite direction. From the Politico report: The administration revealed its position in a filing to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is weighing one defendant’s request to be repaid the $500 in restitution he sent to the Architect of the Capitol after his conviction on misdemeanor charges. The defendant, Stacy Hager, argued in February that he should be reimbursed now that his conviction has been erased as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping grant of clemency to more than 1,500 people charged in the attack.
This week, Trump’s Justice Department responded to Hager’s argument and endorsed reimbursing her. Though Ed Martin, the hyper-partisan acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., was not listed in the court filing, he has endorsed “reparations” for Jan. 6 rioters, arguing last year, “They should get a big pot of money.” Martin, before Trump tapped him to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in the nation’s capital, was a “Stop the Steal” organizer who represented some Jan. 6 defendants.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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