Bill Would Stop Jan. 6 Rioters From Receiving Taxpayer Money

American Social Unrest — Source: Douglas Rissing / Getty

Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) sponsored a House bill that would prevent those who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot from receiving taxpayer-funded settlements.

According to CBS News, the legislation comes as several pardoned Jan 6 rioters have filed lawsuits against the federal government. “We now have the Proud Boys trying to take people’s tax dollars and act like they were the victims on Jan. 6, which we know is patently false,” Ross told CBS News.

“We have got to make it very clear that Congress does not think these insurrectionists need to be rewarded for trying to overturn an election and for defacing property and for injuring Capitol police officers,” Ross told CBS News. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

One of the first moves President Donald Trump made upon starting his second term was issuing a blanket pardon for all those who were charged or convicted of crimes related to the Capitol riot. “The pardons have re-traumatized the victims,” Ross said at a hearing last month.

The legislation specifies that “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds shall be disbursed from the United States Treasury to refund any court-ordered compensation, including restitution, fines, or special assessments, paid by any individual convicted of involvement in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, including any individual so convicted and subsequently pardoned.”

A measure was introduced in the Senate last month that would similarly ban taxpayer money from being paid out to Capitol rioters who were convicted of assaulting police officers. Several Jan. 6 rioters have already filed requests to have court-ordered restitution payments and fines they may have paid as part of their plea agreements or criminal sentences reimbursed through taxpayer funds.

The blanket pardons have also prevented the federal government from collecting the full $3 million in damages that were incurred as a result of the Capitol Riot. A congressional review estimated that only 15% of the damages had been paid for before Trump issued his pardon.

The Trump administration has already issued a $5 million settlement to the family of Ashli Babbitt last year. Babbitt was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while she was trying to break into the House Speaker’s Lobby. Last year, Trump also floated the idea of setting up a reparations fund for the pardoned Capitol rioters.

This situation has had the unintended consequence of showing how quickly the GOP will flip on its principles to capitulate to Trump. The Republican Party has spent the last decade positioning itself as the “law and order” party that “backs the blue.” Yet all of that has gone out the window when it comes to the Capitol rioters.

During a hearing last month on the fifth anniversary of the Capitol riot, U.S. Capitol Police officer Winston Pingeon, who responded to the riot, testified that none of the over 140 police officers injured in the Capitol siege have received a special “compensation fund” or reparations for their losses. “I don’t know of any officer who has received any kind of compensation for what they sacrificed on Jan. 6,” Pingeon testified.

Sure, hundreds of Capitol Police officers were injured, and an officer committed suicide after the riot, but the real victims here are the gullible sheep who tried to commit an insurrection over claims of election fraud for which there was no proof. That sure sounds like backing the blue to me.

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