Capitol rioters clamor for payouts from Trump’s new ‘anti-weaponization’ fund despite backlash

Hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by President Donald Trump are seeking payouts from the administration’s nearly $1.8 billion settlement fund for people claiming to be victims of a weaponized government, despite bipartisan backlash and a judge’s order freezing the fund’s formation. A South Carolina attorney who illegally entered the Capitol is offering to help fellow rioters apply for a cut of the taxpayer money in exchange for a 10% fee capped at $5,000, while critics argue the fund whitewashes the mob’s assault on democracy and rewards criminal behavior.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready... By Michael Kunzelman | Associated Press WASHINGTON — David Johnston was a licensed attorney when he illegally entered the Capitol with a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6, 2021 https://apnews.com/projects/january-6-cases/ . More than five years later, the South Carolina man is offering to help fellow “J6ers” apply for payouts from the Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion new fund https://apnews.com/article/trump-lawsuit-irs-leak-3729de38770b558be01712a143437bf8 for people claiming to be victims of a weaponized government. He’ll do it for a 10% cut of any award, capped at $5,000 apiece. “I think the narrative is changing” about how the history of that day is being told, Johnston said in a video he posted to social media. “I think good things are happening for us.” Hundreds of Trump loyalists pleaded guilty to storming the Capitol, admitting under oath that they broke the law. Now pardoned by Trump https://apnews.com/article/capitol-jan-6-pardons-trump-justice-department-8ce8b2a8f8cb602d5eaf85ac7b969606 , many hope to capitalize on their crimes by tapping into the $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate the Republican president’s allies who believe they were politically prosecuted. A bipartisan backlash https://apnews.com/article/todd-blanche-justice-department-congress-irs-fund-70beefaf7d099ba79f1d36159972e2a9 to the fund and a legal roadblock https://apnews.com/article/trump-settlement-fund-antiweaponization-8baaee6aa8d83f0ad2905f5f8d457dec have not dimmed the celebratory response from Jan. 6 rioters clamoring for a share of the taxpayer money. Some are staking claims even though the government has not established an application process and a judge has frozen the fund’s formation, at least temporarily. Rioters seek compensation payouts The fund’s critics see it as another vehicle for Trump and his allies to whitewash the events of Jan. 6 https://apnews.com/projects/january-6-cases/ , retroactively justify the mob’s assault on a pillar of American democracy and reward some of Trump’s most loyal followers. Jason Riddle https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.230204/gov.uscourts.dcd.230204.31.0.pdf , a military veteran from New Hampshire who was sentenced to 90 days behind bars after pleading guilty to riot charges, publicly rejected a pardon from Trump. Likewise, he said it would be “ridiculous” for him or any other Jan. 6 rioter to get government compensation. “I’d love money, but I can’t accept that. That would bother me for the rest of my life,” he said. “We weren’t innocently persecuted just because of who we are or who we vote for. We were persecuted for committing criminal behavior in the Capitol of the United States.” Plenty of other “J6ers” do not share Riddle’s reluctance. A Florida man who posed for photos with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s podium https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-prisons-florida-nancy-pelosi-e557f8d33fe68977340b9235a9ef2b88 argued on social media that he deserves to be compensated for the cost of his infamy. A rioter from New Jersey described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-biden-us-army-congress-25a72dea54a57bce5a5b12ebafd96a56 hailed the fund as “good news not just for J6ers but all victims of weaponization.” A Texas man who received a seven-year prison sentence https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-tomahawk-shane-jenkins-d33fd96d4a8a747748d2a0a8adfb56d2 for storming the Capitol with a metal tomahawk celebrated the fund as “payback” for “victims of Biden’s tyranny,” referring to Democratic President Joe Biden. Oregon resident Pamela Hemphill, sentenced to 60 days in jail for her conviction https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.235161/gov.uscourts.dcd.235161.32.0 1.pdf , rejected a pardon from Trump but has drafted a written claim for compensation from the fund. Unlike scores of rioters who claim to be victims of a government weaponized by Democrats, Hemphill blames Trump for her legal troubles. Her claims letter says she is seeking $5 million in compensation. “I wouldn’t have been through all of this if Trump hadn’t lied about the election being stolen,” she said during a telephone interview. “It’s a direct result of his lies that I was even there that day.” Fund faces legal and political challenges It is an open question whether anyone convicted of a Capitol riot-related crime could be eligible for payments from a fund created to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS https://apnews.com/article/trump-treasury-irs-tax-records-e3a79e1bfdc94a663504754af80ce183 over the leak of his tax returns. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has not ruled out that possibility. Blanche said there are no limits on who can apply, but he noted that the fund’s five commissioners — all yet to be named — will decide who deserves to be compensated and why, based on factors such as “what the person did, his sentence, how much time he was in jail.” “That’s up to the commissioners,” Blanche told The Associated Press on Thursday when asked about his position on whether violent Jan. 6 defendants should be eligible for payments. “You have to define something and then stick to it. That’s something I’ve been hesitant to try to do, because it’s very fact-intensive,” Blanche said. ”Me sitting here and talking in hypotheticals is something that I don’t think is fair to the process.” It is unclear whether Congress would block payments to Jan. 6 defendants. Senate Republicans who are angry about the settlement have said they want to place parameters on the fund as part of a Department of Homeland Security spending bill. They abruptly left town earlier this month after a tense meeting with Blanche and will return on Monday with the situation unresolved. A federal judge in Virginia has frozen the fund’s establishment and temporarily blocked any processing or paying of claims. The judge issued that ruling Friday in one of at least three lawsuits challenging the fund. Brendan Ballou, a former prosecutor who tried several Jan. 6 cases before leaving the Department of Justice last year, sued on behalf of two police officers who helped defend the Capitol from the mob. Ballou views the fund’s creation as part of a broader Trump campaign to undermine democratic institutions and rewrite the history of Jan. 6. “And if the president is successful in that effort, if he’s able to get people to either forget or condone that day, he knows that he can get people to accept any attack on democracy,” Ballou said. Rioters emboldened by Trump’s Jan. 6 recasting Nearly 1,600 people https://interactives.ap.org/jan-6-prosecutions/ were charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 1,200 were convicted and sentenced before Trump issued mass pardons and ordered the dismissal of all pending Jan. 6 cases. Trump also freed far-right extremist group members https://apnews.com/article/enrique-tarrio-capitol-riot-seditious-conspiracy-sentencing-da60222b3e1e54902db2bbbb219dc3fb who were imprisoned for plotting to attack the Capitol to keep Trump in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden. The self-described “J6 community” isn’t the only pro-Trump constituency angling for cuts of the money. Meshawn Maddock, who was charged as being a fake elector for Trump in Michigan before a judge dismissed the case last year, said she and her husband, state Rep. Matt Maddock, “absolutely” plan on making a claim. She believes the fund’s use of taxpayer money is justified because it “paid for the prosecution and investigation of the years that I was being hunted down.” “I want vengeance and I want retribution,” Maddock said. Trump’s campaign to recast Jan. 6 as a peaceful protest seems to have emboldened many convicted rioters. Johnston’s eagerness to help other Capitol rioters with claims contrasts with his remorse at sentencing https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.243639/gov.uscourts.dcd.243639.40.0.pdf in 2022. He apologized for his “terrible lapse in judgment” before a judge sentenced him to three weeks in jail and three months of home detention. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge. “It was a dumb, dumb thing to do,” Johnston told the judge https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.243637/gov.uscourts.dcd.243637.59.0.pdf . “I am 100% responsible for what I did that day.” Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Mary Claire Jalonick and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.