WASHINGTON--Since President Donald Trump's administration announced the creation of a $1.776 billion fund for Americans deemed to be victims of political "weaponization," January 6 Capitol riot defendants and other Trump allies have scrambled to figure out how to get their share.
Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years for seditious conspiracy over the January 6, 2021 riot, said he planned to apply to the fund, assuming he could get between $2 and $5 million.
"I'm not greedy," Tarrio said. "But my life was all fucked up because of this."
Trump pardoned more than 1,500 January 6 defendants last year. Some have now begun to calculate the cost of their prosecution, jail time and businesses lost in the hope of compensation for what they regard as abuses by the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden.
Peter Ticktin, an attorney representing more than 400 January 6 defendants, said the fund may not be enough."People lost multi-million dollar businesses while they were locked up," he said. "I don’t think the DOJ is ready for us yet."
Trump also suggested the fund may be too small. "You're talking about peanuts," he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews. "It destroyed the lives of many, many people."
Democrats and some Republicans have questioned the legality of the fund, as well as a part of the settlement "forever barring" the IRS from auditing past tax claims by Trump, his relatives and his businesses.Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from Trump supporters on January 6, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to halt the compensation fund, which they described as a "taxpayer-funded slush fund" for Trump followers who engaged in violence.
U.S. acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday that even people who assaulted police on January 6 would not be barred from receiving money. Tarrio, for his part, thinks those who assaulted police should get their share.
"The Justice Department overprosecuted for political gain," he said. "So everyone deserves to get money."
