President Donald Trump freed his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as one of the first acts of his second presidency, and now those rioters believe that act of clemency entitles them to payback.
A federal judge reluctantly agreed last summer that convicted rioter Yvonne St Cyr was entitled to a refund of the $2,270 she was fined as part of her conviction after Trump freed her halfway through the 30-month sentence she received after crawling through a broken Senate window and clashing with police officers, reported the Washington Post.
“It’s my money,” said St Cyr, a Marine Corps veteran from Idaho. “They took my money.”
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, who had sentenced her, identified a legal quirk that entitled her to a refund that he was loath to give.
“Sometimes a judge is called upon to do what the law requires, even if it may seem at odds with what justice or one’s initial instincts might warrant,” Bates wrote in his August ruling. “This is one such occasion.”
At least eight Jan. 6 defendants are seeking to claw back the financial penalties imposed as part of their sentences, according to a Post review of court records, and others are filing lawsuits against the government seeking millions of dollars for allegedly tainted prosecutions and violations of their constitutional rights, while hundreds more have filed claims against he Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies seeking damages.
“The efforts are the latest chapter in an extraordinary rewriting of history by the president and his allies to bury the facts of what happened at the Capitol, sustain the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged, and recast the Jan. 6 offenders as victims entitled to taxpayer-funded compensation,” the Post reported.
The pro-Trump mob caused nearly $3 million in damage to the Capitol, according to a 2022 DOJ estimate, but the government has recovered less than $665,000 in more than $1.2 million in restitution and fines imposed by courts, and Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) are pushing legislation to block government payouts to those defendants.
“The audacity of them to think they didn’t do anything, or to think that they’re right and then get their money back,” said former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn. “It’s frustrating and it should not happen. They should have to pay more.”
Convicted rioter Stacy Hager, a 62-year-old former warehouse supervisor from Texas, said he’s entitled to a refund of $570 he paid in penalties after serving seven months in jail for his conviction on four misdemeanor charges related to disorderly conduct and trespassing.
“You tell me why I shouldn’t be entitled to getting my money back,” said Hager, who still believes that Trump had the 2020 election stolen from him. “The government took money from me for doing the right thing, for standing up for the people’s vote. That’s the reason we were there — for a free and fair election.”
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