They say, “Crime doesn’t pay.”
Are “they” sure about that?
I’ve been writing about your money for over 35 years, and part of my beat is watching our federal government. I’ve seen plenty of waste, plenty of dumb ideas, and plenty of pet projects bankrolled by your paycheck.
But I’ve never seen anything quite like this.
On May 18, the Trump administration set aside $1.776 billion in taxpayer money to compensate Americans the president says were unfairly targeted by federal prosecutors. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told the Senate that “anybody in this country can apply.”
That includes the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — including those convicted of destroying our property and assaulting the police officers we pay to protect it.
And it’s just one of five money streams now flowing to Jan. 6 rioters. Let me walk you through them.
(Quick warning: A portion of every paycheck you earn helps fund what you’re about to read about. If you want a broader look at how Washington spends your money, we’ve covered some of the bigger taxpayer headaches.)
1. The $1.776 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’
The Department of Justice announced this fund on May 18, as part of settling President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
The Treasury has 60 days to move the money into the pot. A five-person commission, appointed by the acting attorney general, will decide who gets paid and how much, and the president can remove any of those members at will. The fund runs through December 2028.
That amount — $1.776 billion — is a deliberate nod to 1776, the year of American independence. It’s also the year Capitol rioters invoked as their rallying cry that day, and it’s used in the title of the Proud Boys’ planning document, “1776 Returns.”
I find it a bit ironic that all of this is unfolding just before the holiday when we honor our service members who gave their lives defending our country.
Pressed by senators on Tuesday, Blanche refused to rule out payments to convicted Jan. 6 rioters. Vice President JD Vance backed him up: “I’m not committing to giving anybody money or committing to giving no one money.”
So how much could a rioter actually pull in?
Jake Lang — pardoned by Trump after being charged with eight counts of assaulting officers — told NPR that misdemeanor defendants “should be looking to receive several hundred thousand dollars,” while serious cases “may be looking at upwards of a million dollars.”
Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader who got the longest Jan. 6 sentence (22 years before his pardon), is already preparing his application. Jenny Cudd, a Texas florist who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, told CBS News that “all J6ers will apply.”
Are you starting to feel a little ripped off yet? Hold on. It gets worse.
2. The Babbitt family’s $4.975 million wrongful-death settlement
In May 2025, the Trump administration agreed to pay nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, the rioter shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through a broken window outside the House chamber.
The original lawsuit, filed by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, sought $30 million.
The officer who fired the shot, Lt. Michael Byrd, was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in 2021 by the DOJ’s own investigation.
But four years later — under a new administration — the DOJ decided to write a $5 million check anyway. About a third of it went to Babbitt’s attorneys.
Then-Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger called the settlement “extremely disappointing” and warned it sent “a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide.” His statement was largely ignored.
So we’ve established that the family of someone who illegally broke into the Capitol and was tragically killed gets a $5 million check. The officer who lawfully stopped her got a chilling message.
Quick gut-check — if your money advice is coming from random online influencers, you’re playing a dangerous game. I’ve been a CPA since 1980 and writing about money since before the internet existed. Sign up for the free Money Talks Newsletter and get expert advice that’s been tested by time.
3. Restitution refunds — paying rioters back for damage they caused
Most convicted Jan. 6 defendants were ordered to pay restitution to help repair the roughly $3 million in damage they inflicted on the U.S. Capitol. Misdemeanants typically paid $500. Felons paid around $2,000.
The total collected from rioters was about $437,000 — a small fraction of the actual damage they caused.
That money is now flowing the other way.
In April 2025, the DOJ took the position that pardoned defendants whose convictions were vacated on appeal are entitled to refunds.
That August, a federal judge approved the first one: $2,270 to Yvonne St. Cyr, an Idaho woman sentenced to 30 months in prison for two felony counts of civil disorder. The same judge had told her at sentencing she had “little or no respect” for the law.
U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, didn’t sound thrilled about the refund. “Sometimes a judge is called upon to do what the law requires,” he wrote, “even if it may seem at odds with what justice or one’s initial instincts might warrant. This is one such occasion.”
By December, Chief Judge James Boasberg had reversed his own earlier ruling and ordered full refunds for two more defendants. At least eight Jan. 6 rioters are now pursuing similar refunds in court.
4. The civil-suit pipeline — more big checks coming
The Babbitt settlement wasn’t an outlier. It was a starting gun.
The DOJ also reached a $1.1 million settlement with anti-abortion activist Mark Houck, who was acquitted of an assault charge. And it paid $1.25 million to Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty to a felony count of lying to the FBI before being pardoned in 2020.
NBC News reported that until the Anti-Weaponization Fund was announced, the DOJ had been actively defending Jan. 6-related civil lawsuits. It’s unclear whether they still will.
If the answer is no, expect a flood of cases — and a flood of taxpayer-funded settlements.
According to The Washington Post, hundreds of additional claims have already been filed alleging that the DOJ, the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies caused property damage and personal injuries to Jan. 6 defendants.
5. The pardons themselves
None of the above happens without this.
On Jan. 20, 2025 — his first day back in office — President Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
That includes people convicted of assaulting police, members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, and individuals who’d been serving multi-decade prison sentences.
The financial value is hard to capture in a single dollar figure. But consider what a pardon erases: prison time and lost wages, probation costs, court fines, and the felony record that follows you on every job application for the rest of your life.
For a Jan. 6 defendant facing a long sentence, the pardon alone could be worth millions in present-value terms.
And the pardons opened the door to everything else on this list. No conviction means no legal grounds to deny restitution refunds. No conviction means rioters can credibly claim they were targeted by a “weaponized” government.
Without the pardons, none of the rest of this exists.
What you can do about it
I’m a consumer reporter, not a politician. The political debate isn’t going to be settled by me — and it isn’t going to be settled by this article.
My job is simply to tell you what’s happening to your money.
The $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund alone works out to roughly $5 per American — every man, woman, and child. Add in the Babbitt settlement, the restitution refunds, and the coming wave of civil suits, and the bill keeps climbing.
Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have introduced legislation to ban taxpayer money from compensating Jan. 6 rioters. And on May 21, two Capitol Police officers filed a federal lawsuit to block the fund entirely.
Whether either effort goes anywhere is anybody’s guess.
But if you’d like to weigh in with your member of Congress, the Capitol switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. Tell them what you think about tax dollars going to people who attacked police officers. You can also find your senators and representatives and send them a note at Democracy.io.
In decades of writing about money, I’ve learned one thing for certain. If you don’t pay attention to where your money’s going, then you’re giving up your right to complain.
Make a difference. Use your voice. Then share this article.
Add a Comment